BS  511  .S59  1879 

Smyth,  Newman,  1843-1925 

Old  faiths  in  new  light 


Old  Faiths  u  New  Light 


BY 

NEWMAN  ^  SMYTH 

AUTHOR    OF     "the    RELIGIOUS    FEELING' 


The    Holy    Spirit    of    Education." 

IVisdom,  1:5. 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

743-745  BROADWAY 

1879 


Copyright,  1879,  by 
CHARLES   SCRIBNER-S   SONS 


Trow's 

Printing  and  Bookbinding  Company, 

205-213  East  \ith  Street^ 

NEW    YOKK. 


®o  ll)c  HXetnoro 

OP 

AN   HONORED   FATHER  AND  A   REVERED   MOTHER, 

WHO    LEFT    ME,    AS    THEIR    HERITAGE, 

THE   OLD   FAITHS 

WHICH   THEY    NOW    BEHOLD   IN    THE   NEW   LIGHT  OF   A   BETTER   WORLD, 

THIS  VOLUME. 

THE  RESULT  OF  THE  ENDEAVOR  TO  KEEP  THE  BIRTHRIGHT  OF  A  CHRISTIAN 

CHILDHOOD  THROUGH  THE  DOUBTS  AND  QUESTIONINGS 

OF  AFTER  YEARS, 

IS     DEDICATED 

IN    GRATEFUL    REMEMBRANCE. 


PREFAC 


John  Ruskin  has  said  tliat  for  the  words, 
good  and  bad,  we  might  almost  substitute  the 
words,  makers  and  destroyers.  While  writ- 
inor  this  book,  I  have  seen  workmen  tearino^ 
down  portions  of  the  walls  of  a  church  whose 
Vjeauty  had  vanished,  like  a  dream,  in  the 
flames  of  an  hour;  but  they  tore  down  only 
so  far  as  was  necessary,  in  order  to  find  firm 
points  from  which  to  build  up  again  the 
crumbling  arches.  I  have  had  thus,  in  a  daily 
figure,  before  me  the  true  object  of  any  de- 
structive criticism  of  old  faiths.  We  are  jus- 
tified in  pulling  down  as  we  cherish  the  pur- 
pose of  building  up.  If  to  any  my  work  shall 
seem  at  points  to  unsettle  traditional  beliefs 
which  have  become  sacred  in  their  eyes,  I 
would  ask  them  to  read  on,  and  wait  to  see 
whether,  upon  the  old  foundations,  a  better 
home  for  our  relio:ious  faiths  is  not  to  be  built 
up  by  the  Christian  scholarship  of  to-day. 

^'  I  do  not,  as  a  rule,  find  what  I  want  in 


VI  PREFACE. 

the  books  where  I  naturally  seek  it;"  so  a 
friend  writes  to  me,  whose  words  I  may  per- 
haps be  permitted  to  quote,  as  one  sign  among 
others  of  the  failure  of  many  cultivated  and 
sincere  minds  to  find  what  their  faith  craves 
in  the  standard  treatises  or  stereotyped  meth- 
ods of  relictions  thouo-ht.  Modern  research 
has  gathered  many  truths  which  the  people 
need  for  a  living  faith,  but  which  lie  scattered 
through  numerous  articles  in  reviews,  or  are 
hidden  in  philosophical  phraseology,  or  remain 
inaccessible  to  most  readers  in  voluminous 
German  books.  It  has  been  my  aim  to  meet 
what  I  believe  to  be  a  growing  need  of  intelli- 
gent people,  by  gathering  materials  of  faith 
which  have  been  quarried  by  many  specialists 
in  their  own  departments  of  biblical  study  or 
scientific  research,  but  which,  to  a  large  extent, 
have  been  left  by  them  in  a  disconnected  and 
fragmentary  state ;  and  by  endeavoring  to  put 
these  results  of  recent  scholarship  together, 
accordins:  to  one  leadins:  idea,  in  a  modern 
construction  of  old  faiths.  The  science  by 
which  the  works  of  the  specialists  are  to  be 
arranged  in  one  order  and  harmony,  is  a 
science  which  needs  now-a-days  to  be  ad- 
vanced and  honored.     Building  firmly,  on  the 


PREFACE.  Vll 

one  hand,  upon  the  facts  of  nature  and  history, 
and,  on  the  other,  upon  the  moral  and  reli- 
gious experience  of  the  soul,  its  high  office 
and  endeavor  is  to  spring  from  either  side  the 
arch  which  shall  at  last  bring  together  the 
material  and  the  spiritual,  the  natural  and  the 
supernatural,  in  one  continuous  and  rounded 
whole  of  knowledge.  The  accomplishment  of 
that  task — the  ultimate  philosophy — seems  in- 
deed beyond  the  power  of  human  reason,  but 
we  may  at  least  pursue  it  as  an  ideal.  My 
object,  then,  has  been  to  make  more  popularly 
known  results  already  gained  in  this  direction 
by  the  labors  of  the  learned,  as  well  as  to  offer 
some  contribution  to  this  growing  science  of 
the  sciences.  I  would  read  the  old  faiths, 
which  I  still  believe,  in  the  light  of  modern 
thouo^ht  to  which  I  cannot  be  blind.  I  would 
help  others,  if  possible,  walk  still  in  the  old 
ways  which  prophets  and  apostles  have  trod^ 
but  in  the  light  of  to-day. 

The  modern  idea  which  seems  to  reopen  old 
questions  of  faith,  and  the  spirit  in  which  re- 
newed religious  inquiries  should  be  prosecuted, 
form  the  subject  of  the  opening  chapter.  I 
have  then  dwelt  in  succession  upon  certain 
prominent  points  around  which,  as  it  seems  to 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

me,  tlie  Cliristian  evidences  need  now-a-days  to 
be  worked  up  anew.  The  endeavor  to  single 
out  these  leading  points,  and  to  jDursue  a 
straightforward  line  of  argument  between 
them,  has  compelled  me  to  give  only  a  passing 
glance  at  many  subjects  which  are  deserving 
of  thorough  exploration,  and  to  cross,  often 
rapidly,  over  much  debatable  ground.  While 
not  wishing  to  burden  my  pages  with  the  de- 
tails of  scientific  investigations,  or  the  minutiae 
of  critical  discussions,  I  have  occasionally, 
however,  given  references,  in  foot-notes,  to 
authorities  for  statements  which  might  seem 
to  require  further  support  than  my  plan  would 
allow  me  to  bring  forward ;  and,  so  far  as  I 
am  aware,  I  have  indicated  my  obligations  to 
writers  whose  suggestions  I  have  found  grown 
into  my  own  thought.  I  am  sensible,  however, 
of  more  indebtedness  than  I  can  easily  ac- 
knowledge by  passing  references,  in  theology, 
to  the  broad,  but  genuine.  Protestantism  of 
Pi'of.  Dorner ;  in  biblical  history,  to  the  always 
inspiring,  but  not  always  safe,  leadership  of 
Ewald ;  and,  in  metaphysics,  to  the  profound 
spiritual  thought  of  that  master  of  physical 
science  as  well  as  of  ideas,  the  sceptical  be- 
liever, Lotze. 


A 


^un^c^^o^ 


TABLE  OF  CONTEI^TS. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE   IDEA  OF  DEVELOPMENT,  AND  THE  NEW  QUESTIONS  ABOUT 
OLD   FAITHS. 

Separation  between  modem  scholarship  and  the  popular  belief. — 
Prevalence  of  undefined  unbelief. — Need  of  popularizing  the 
results  of  the  best  Christian  scholarship. — Evolution  a  revolu- 
tionary call  to  modern  thought, — Old  faiths  in  the  light  of  the 
idea  of  development. — Supreme  importance  of  these  questions, 
and  the  temper  of  mind  to  be  observed  in  their  discussion. — 
The  three  epochs  of  modem  thought. — The  age  of  theological 
reconstruction. — The  service  of  destructive  criticism. — The 
need  of  resetting  our  faiths. 13-33 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  HISTORICAL  GROWTH  OF   THE   BIBLE. 

The  historical  development  of  revelation. — The  nature  of  inspira- 
tion a  secondary  question. — Periods  of  the  growth  of  the  Bible. 
— Its  materials. — The  forces  in  its  development. — The  law  of 
heredity,  and  the  development  of  religion  in  Israel.— Signs 
of  anti-historic  evolution. — The  higher  law  of  selection  in  the 
canon. — The  progress  of  revelation  and  its  unity  of  design. — 
The  broader  view  of  revelation  and  its  advantage.  .  .  33-61 
1* 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  COURSE  OF  MORAL  EDUCATION  AND  PROGRESS  OF  REVE- 
LATION. 

The  educational  method  of  God. — Three  views  of  history. — The 
science  of  social  statistics. — The  idealistic  philosophy  of  his- 
tory.— The  theology  of  history. — Revelation  a  progressive  moral 
education  of  mankind. — The  true  moral  test  of  a  course  of  rev- 
elation.— The  educational  method  of  God  in  the  Bible. — Its 
truths  are  forces  of  progress.— Moral  leadership  of  the  Scrip- 
tures.— Progress  of  doctrine.  —  Object-lessons. — Educational 
intent  of  the  law. — Illustrated  by  the  use  of  vows,  the  pre- 
paratory law  of  the  Sabbath,  the  advance  in  the  names  for 
God.— Success  of  the  divine  method  of  education.— Its  results. 
— The  family. — The  end  of  human  sacrifices. — Abraham's  of- 
fering an  historical  object-lesson,  and  its  effect. — The  aboli- 
tion of  slavery.— Growth  of  the  hope  of  immortality.— DiflScul- 
ties  surmounted  by  this  view  of  revelation. — Revelation  its  own 
final  test.— The  silence  of  Scripture.— The  moral  limitations 
of  revelation.— Evidence  in  the  course  of  revelation  of  a  su- 
pernatural evolution 63-127 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  ADVANCE  OF   KNOWLEDGE  AND  THE  SCIENTIFIC   TENDENCY 
OF   THE   BIBLE. 

The  same  educational  method  in  the  scientific  teaching  of  the 
Bible. — Elementary  scientific  virtues  of  the  Bible. — Freedom 
from  nature-myths. — Contrast  between  the  Mosaic  Genesis 
and  its  environment. — The  biblical  conception  of  law. — Opti- 
cal accuracy  of  the  Bible. — Genesis  a  first  lesson. — Its  object 
and  point  of  view.— Its  real  service  to  science.— The  alphabet 
of  science  in  revelation.— The  spiritual  origin  of  material 
things. — Creation  not  magic. — The  impossibility  of  being  a 
materialist.— Matter,  life,  and  mind  from  God.— The  biblical 
teaching  of  the  development  of  the  creation. — The  element  of 
time  left  indefinite.— The  scientific  tendency  of  revelation  the 


CONTENTS.  XI 

main  question. — Summary. — The  Mosaic  Genesis  a  providen- 
tial elementary  lesson  in  nature. — Moses'  genius  for  teaching. 
— Additional  evidence  of  a  supernatural  course  of  history.    128-184 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE    CULMINATION    IN    THE    CHRIST  :    I.    THE    UNIQUENESS  OP 
JESUS. 

Jesus  the  surprise  of  history. — Failure  to  account  for  his  appear- 
ance by  the  laws  of  heredity. — Jesus  not  a  Jew,  nor  a  Gentile, 
nor  the  child  of  two  races. — His  teaching  not  eclecticism,  nor 
a  revival  of  an  older  prophetic  spirit. — Uniqueness  of  Jesus 
shown  in  his  doctrine,  his  moral  ideal,  his  method  and  plan, 
and  in  the  absence  of  certain  common  human  traits. — The 
unique  power  of  Jesus. — Peculiar  moral  quality  of  his  mira- 
cles.— His  power  in  history. — The  new  society. — Originality 
of  Jesus'  self-consciousness. — Originality  of  the  idea  of  the 
Lord's  Supper. — These  characteristics  independent  of  ques- 
tions concerning  the  origin  of  the  Gospels. — Conflict  of  the 
conclusion  thus  gained  with  the  law  of  continuity. — The 
deeper  question.      .  185-231 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    CULMINATION     IN     THE     CHRIST:     IL     THE    NATURALNESS 
OF   CHRIST. 

The  naturalness  of  the  life  of  Christ  as  a  whole  — Correspond- 
ence between  being  and  influence. — The  argument  from  proph- 
ecy.— The  place  of  Christ  in  the  divine  order  of  history. — 
The  ascent  of  life. — The  law  of  individualization. — Christ  the 
end  of  the  creation. — The  moral  interpretation  of  the  crea- 
tion.— The  human  need  of  the  Messiah  and  its  prophecy. — The 
moral  necessity  of  the  incarnation. — Its  form  determined  by 
Bin. — The  incarnation  a  process. — The  ideal  truth  of  the  incar- 
nation    232-288 


XU  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   UNFINISHED  WORLD   AND  ITS  COINIPLETION. 

Confirmation  of  foregoing  reasonings  by  the  signs  of  the  future 
course  of  nature.— The  unfinished  world.— The  unseen  uni- 
verse.— Evidence  of  another  order  of  existence  from  the  tem- 
poral origin  of  the  world  ;  the  apparent  waste  of  nature  ;  the 
probable  end  of  the  present,  visible  creation  ;  the  spiritual  sig- 
nificance of  life,  and  the  nature  of  mind.— Facts  and  theories. 
— Probabilities  of  science  and  teachings  of  revelation  com- 
pared.—Relation  of  the  two  spheres  of  the  one  creation,— In- 
fluences of  the  unseen.— The  final  conservation  and  completion 
of  the  natural.— Where  is  heaven  ?— Removal  of  difficulties.  289-348 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  PROCESS  OP  RESURRECTION  AND  THE  END. 

The  resurrection  of  Jesus  a  fact  and  a  revelation  to  the  disciples. — 
Circumstantial  evidences  of  the  fact.— Jesus'  resurrection  a 
special  object-lesson  illustrating  a  general  law.— Its  nature 
and  process.— The  apostolic  doctrine  and  its  corruption. —Ex- 
treme materialistic  and  idealistic  conceptions.— Elements  of 
the  biblical  doctrine  of  the  resurrection.— The  continuity  of 
the  life  of  the  individual.— Naturalness  of  the  resurrection.— 
Its  place  in  the  constitution  of  the  creation.— Contrast  with 
Herbert  Spencer's  view  of  the  end  of  evolution.— The  super- 
natural evolution,— Dualism  and  unity  of  the  creation.— Con- 
clusion         349-391 


OLD  EAITHS  H 


CHAPTER  I. 

5?HE    IDEA     OF     DEVELOPilENT,     AKD     THE     NEW 
QUESTIONS   ABOUT    OLD    FAITHS. 

It  is  an  open  secret  that  there  has  been  of 
late  an  increasing  separation  between  many 
views  of  the  Bible  and  religion  gained  by  emi- 
nent Christian  scholars,  and  opinions  gener- 
ally held  to  be  the  truth  in  the  religious  com- 
munions mth  which  they  still  retain  fellow- 
ship. Even  thoroughly  evangelical  divines 
are  sometimes  made  painfully  aware  of  the 
distance  to  which  they  have  been  carried  by  the 
course  of  their  studies,  or  have  unconsciously 
drifted  ^vitb.  the  current  of  modern  thought, 
from  religious  positions  still  firmly  maintained 
by  many  among  their  people,  or  their  ecclesi- 
astical associates,  with  whom,  nevertheless,  in 
spirit  and  aim,  they  are  agreed.  As  a  result 
of  this  alienation  between  much  of  the  best 
scholarship  and  much  of  the  best  life  of  the 


14  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

Christian  world,  there  is  often  to  be  found,  on 
the  one  side,  a  half -concealed  mistrust  of  the 
freer  methods  of  modern  biblical  criticism,  or 
a  flurried  opposition  to  the  claims  of  science ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  sometimes 
manifested  an  over-confident  and  rude  display 
of  a  little  knowledge  of  the  new  learning ;  but 
more  often  a  cautious  reticence  is  observed  on 
the  part  of  sober-minded  scholars,  who  are 
slow  to  disturb  by  their  own  questionings,  or 
by  their  improved  methods  of  faith,  the  long- 
settled  beliefs  of  the  people.  They  wisely  pre- 
fer to  hide  many  questions  in  their  hearts, 
rather  than  to  proclaim  their  doubts  upon  the 
housetops.  In  Cicero's  treatise  concerning  the 
nature  of  the  gods,  Cotta,  an  orator  and  magis- 
trate, is  represented  as  saying  that  it  would 
be  allowable  in  a  private  conference  to  hold 
views  which  it  would  be  difiicult  to  advocate 
before  a  public  assembly.*  Some  of  our  too 
eager  disputants  of  received  opinions  might 
learn  a  useful  lesson  fi'om  the  hesitancy  of  the 
Roman  mao;istrate  to  shake  the  foundations  of 
the  popular  faith.  But  the  doubts  of  the  phi- 
losophers could  not  always  remain  hidden, 
and  when  the  soothsayers  could  hardly  re- 
frain from  laughing  in  each  other's  faces,  as 
they   consulted   the   omens,  there   was   little 


*  De  Nat.  Deoram,  i.  22. 


FAITH  AND  SCHOLARSHIP.  1 5 

hope  left  for  tlie  popular  ]'eligion  of  tiie  Eo- 
mans.  In  the  nature  of  modern  society,  what 
is  whispered  in  secret  must  soon  be  published 
abroad.  Learning  is  no  longer  a  cloistered 
virtue ;  and  any  wide  or  continued  separation 
between  the  best  thought  and  the  received 
opinions  of  the  Christian  world  would  be  full 
of  hazard  to  religion.  The  mere  suspicion 
that  the  advanced  scholarship  and  the  old 
faiths  are  to-day  at  variance,  is  itself  a  fruitful 
cause  of  popular  indifference  and  unbelief. 
Indeed,  the  Christian  faith  sufEers  more  from 
a  certain  vague  mistrust,  or  undefined  unbe- 
lief, among  the  people,  than  it  does  from 
any  one  positive  and  definite  form  of  infi- 
delity. This  indefinite  mistrust,  moreover, 
arises  partly  from  knowledge,  and  partly  from 
ignorance.  It  emanates  from  the  knowledge 
that  there  has  been  of  late  much  destructive 
criticism  of  the  old  theologies,  and  from  igno- 
rance of  the  methods  and  the  results  of  the 
best  Christian  scholarship.  As  a  little  warmth 
of  the  rising  sun  may  call  up  the  very  mists 
which  are  to  be  dissipated  by  its  more  power- 
ful shining,  so  this  vague  and  chilling  popu- 
lar unbelief  is  to  be  dispelled,  not  by  with- 
holding knowledge,  but  by  shedding  abroad 
all  possible  light.  Whatever  may  be  knownU-^ 
concerning  the  origin  and  comparative  place 
of  our  sacred  Scriptures ;  whatever  changes  in 


l6  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

the  methods  of  studying  the  Bible,  or  the  the- 
ology of  the  Bible,  have  commended  them- 
selves to  the  judgment  of  the  best-informed 
minds ;  and  whatever  new  views  of  old  faiths 
have  been  opened  by  the  advances  of  science, 
must  be  brought  forward  cautiously,  yet  fi^eely, 
in  the  teaching  of  any  church  that  is  to  retain 
its  hold  upon  the  people.  The  history  of 
j^doctrine  shows  that  one  work  which  is  re- 
quired, every  generation  or  two,  of  Christian 
thought,  is  to  rearrange  its  faiths  in  new 
lights  ;  and  many  signs  indicate  a  present  and 
growing  need  of  some  resetting  of  the  so-called 
Christian  evidences.  This  work,  also,  needs  to 
be  popularized,  as  science  nowadays  is  popu- 
larized. Our  age  comes  speaking  new  tongues, 
which  our  fathei's  knew  not  of.  We,  who 
have  inherited  their  faiths  as  our  birthright, 
have  tried,  also,  to  learn  these  strange  tongues, 
and  we  find  to  our  joy  that  we  can  still  proph- 
esy in  them ;  that  in  some  of  the  very  words 
which  at  first  we  feared  were  without  God, 
and  without  hope  in  the  world,  we  begin  to 
discover  the  best  words  the  human  reason  has 
ever  found  in  which  to  declare  the  ways  of 
the  Spirit. 

The  one  word,  which  more  than  all  others 
has  been  a  revolutionary  call  to  modern 
thought,  is  the  word  Evolution.  The  term 
covers  many  opinions  which,  though  united  in 


THE  IDEA    OF  DEVELOPMENT.  1 7 

a  common  opposition  to  former  views  of  tlie 
creation,  are  far  from  beinsr  at  one  amono^ 
themselves.  It  is  the  watchword  of  the  most 
gross  materialists,  and  also  the  guiding  princi- 
ple of  others  who  are  led  by  its  clew  through 
the  mazes  of  visible  phenomena  out  to  the 
borders  of  the  unseen,  and  into  the  presence 
of  the  living  God.  The  laws  and  forces,  the 
nature  and  extent,  of  evolution  are  still  under 
discussion ;  and  the  most  ardent  believers  in 
it  differ  widely  among  themselves.  The  late 
Mr.  Lewes,  for  instance,  was  of  the  opinion 
that  Mr.  Darwin  has  mistaken  the  effect  for 
the  cause  in  his  famous  doctrine  of  Natural 
Selection  ;  ^  and,  in  opposition  to  the  Darmn- 
ian  theory  of  descent  from  one  far-ofE  ances- 
tor, he  insisted  upon  the  necessity  of  suppos- 
ing innumerable  starting-points  to  explain  the 
vast  variety  of  organisms. f  And  it  was  after 
Prof.  Huxley  had  informed  us  that  evolution 
is  demonstrated  knowledge,  \  and  after  Haeckel 
had  said  tliat  "  to  demand  proofs  in  favor  of 
the  theory  of  descent  ...  is  to  give  evidence 
of  a  lack  of  knowledge  and  understanding,"  § 
that  Prof.  Virchow,  himself  an  evolutionist, 
not  destitute  of  either,  declared :    "  We  cannot 


*  The  Physical  Basis  of  Mind,  p.  121. 

t  Ibid.,  pp.  125-126. 

X  See  American  Addresses. 

§  Munich  Address. 


1 8  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

teach,  we  cannot  designate  as  a  revelation  of 
science,  the  doctrine  that  man  descends  from 
the  ape  or  from  any  other  animal.* 

But  questionable,  or  incapable  of  proof,  as 
may  be  particular  scientific  theories  of  descent, 
and  whatever  may  be  the  final  form  of  the 
(^  philosophy  of  evolution, — it  is  already  evident 
that  all  our  modes  of  reasoning  and  our  most 
settled  faiths  are  to-day  brought  to  judgment 
before  the  idea  of  development.  It  is  not  al- 
together a  new  idea,  but  it  is  an  idea  invested 
with  new  power.  It  admits  of  different  defi- 
nitions, but  in  some  form  it  claims  to  j^reside 
over  all  scientific  thouofht.  It  bids  us  beware 
of  regarding  existing  things  as  though  they  were 
struck  into  being  by  successive  blows  of  creative 
power.  It  maintains  that,  so  far  as  things  can 
be  observed  and  events  followed,  they  are  con- 
tinuous, and  form  one  order.  It  directs  us  to 
trace  everywhere  processes  of  unfolding  and 
growth.  It  declares  that  the  world  is  the 
fruit  of  ages,  and  not  the  manufacture  of  a 
day.  It  accepts  notliing  as  ready-made,  but 
searches  for  the  modes  of  production  by  which 
all  thing  have  come  to  pass.  Whether  these 
great  processes  of  formation  be  regarded  as 
"  a  mechanical  evolution,"  as  Haeckel  holds 
them  to  be — blind  forces  buildinor  better  than 


The  Liberty  of  Science  in  the  Modern  State. 


THE  IDEA    OF  DEVELOPMENT.  1 9 

y,  they  knew — or  whether  they  be  conceived  as 
i  the  course  or  method  of  creative  wisdom,  in- 
telligently pursued  from  the  beginning,  it  is 
beyond  question  that  the  idea  of  development, 
in  some  form  of   it,  is  the  dominant  idea  of 
modern  thought.     To  the  test  of  that  preva- 
lent and  powerful  idea  we  are  required  to  sub- 
mit   our  most  sacred  spiritual  and   religious 
faiths.     The  Bible,  Christianity,  the  hope  of 
immortality,  we  shall  bring  under  the  light  of 
this  modern  principle.    I  need  hardly  add  that 
a  theistic  conception  of  evolution  is  the  only 
^  one  to  which,  in  the  last  appeal,  I  feel  bound 
■^  to  carry  the  argument  for  our  old  faiths.* 

The  complete  execution  of  the  author's  plan 
woidd  involve  a  comprehensive  treatise  on 
Christianity  and  development — an  entire  re- 
working, in  view  of  modern  ideas  of  develop- 
ment, of  the  department  of  apolegetics.  In 
this  volume  so  great  a  task — almost  too  great 
for  any  one  mind  to  hope  to  accomplish — is 
not  attempted;  but,  as  already  indicated,  I 
shall  endeavor  to  examine  certain  connected 
and  strategic  points  along  the  line  of  defence 


*  Having,  in  a  former  work  (The  Religious  Feeling,  New  York, 
1877),  examined  how  our  idea  of  God  remains  undissolved  by  the 
evolutionary  philosophy,  I  take  the  liberty  of  referring  to  that 
work  for  any  theistic  assumptions  of  this.  Incidentally,  however, 
these  will  receive  further  justification,  and  the  author's  idea  of 
development  be  further  defined,  in  the  course  of  the  present  dis- 
cussion. 


20  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

of  the  Christian  faith.  Before  addressing 
ourselves,  however,  directly  to  the  vrork  pro- 
posed, something  should  be  said  concerning 
the  temper  of  mind  in  which  an  essay  like  this 
should  be  both  written  and  read. 

The  themes  with  which  we  shall  be  occu- 
pied must  ever  be  of  supreme  concern  to  any 
who  can  appreciate  the  motives  which  led 
Bishop  Butler  to  write,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend, 
before  he  left  school,  that  he  intended  to  make 
truth  the  business  of  his  life.  It  is  said  that 
Jacobi,  the  faith -philosopher,  as  he  was  called, 
while  still  a  student  at  the  university,  upon 
reading  for  the  first  time  Kant's  treatise  on 
the  proofs  of  the  existence  of  God,  was  seized 
with  a  violent  palpitation  of  the  heart,  so  in- 
tense was  his  interest  in  the  renewed  discus- 
sion of  man's  oldest  and  greatest  faith.  True 
or  false,  these  faiths  are  the  supreme  concern 
of  our  lives.  It  is  above  all  thincrs  oar  busi- 
ness  here  to  think  of  them,  and  to  work  them 
out  in  our  lives.  For  those  who  are  indiffer- 
ent to  the  value  of  truth ;  for  any  persons  like 
the  traveller  in  that  shrine  of  art,  the  Tribune 
of  the  Uffizi  Gallery  at  Florence,  who,  after  a 
moment's  glance  at  the  great  paintings  and 
statues,  was  overheard  to  express  the  desire  to 
go  and  visit  the  king's  stables,  such  themes 
may  be  too  high  and  sacred ; — a  passing  glance 
at  the   visions  of  prophets  and  seers,  a  mo- 


DEMAGOGISM  IN  SCIENCE.  2  1 

ment's  tliouglit  upon  the  greatest  truths  with 
which  a  human  mind  may  be  concerned,  are 
all  that  can  be  expected  of  those  who  can  be 
contented  with  visiting  the  king's  stables; 
who  are  pleased  with  the  mere  trappings  and 
externals  of  this  royal  realm  through  which 
our  souls  are  travelling,  while  they  might  lin- 
ger in  the  palace  itself  and  rejoice  in  behold- 
ing the  wonderful  treasures  of  the  kingdom 
of  Truth. 

Among  those  who  are  interested  in  such 
discussions,  there  is  sometimes  cherished  a 
ti^mper  of  mind,  which,  wherever  found,  is 
whc^lly  alien  to  tlie  spirit  in  which  inquiries 
like  these  should  be  conducted.  It  may  aptly, 
and  not  too  harshly,  be  characterized  as  the 
temper  of  the  religious,  or  the  scientific,  dema- 
gogue. For  it  is  unfortunately  true  that  there 
may  be  veritable  demagogues  in  the  republic 
of  letters  as  well  as  in  the  State ;  and,  as  in 
politics,  so  in  religion,  they  are  to  be  found  in 
the  ranks  of  all  parties,  and  their  spirit  is  pe 
culiar  to  no  creed  or  sect.  Liberalism  and  or 
thodoxism  alike  produce  them.  Popular  infi 
delity,  too,  has  its  arrant  demagogues — lectu 
rers  who  carry  on  a  notorious  business  of  athe 
ism  on  a  small  capital  of  philosophic  or  scien 
tific  thought,  and  usually  borrowed  capital 
besides.  Thus  a  man  of  fluent  wit  will  go  up 
and  down  through  the  Bible,  or  ecclesiastical 


2  2  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

history,  very  much  as  a  political  stump-speaker 
will  look  throuo^h  the  Concessional  records, 
or  our  national  history,  for  the  points  of  his 
partisan  speech.  Pie  will  begin  with  Genesis 
and  find  ''  mistakes  of  Moses "  in  abundance. 
He  will  expatiate  upon  the  absurdities  of  the 
story  of  the  ark.  He  will  pause  in  dramatic 
horror  before  the  cruel  wars  of  the  Jews.  He 
will  single  out  an  imprecatory  psalm  or  two ; 
and  when  he  comes  to  the  New  Testament, 
he  will  find  in  it  discrepancies  and  misstate- 
ments enough  to  j)roYe  that  all  the  Apos- 
tles were  little  better  than  literary  thieves 
and  robbers.  Then  he  will  run  up  and  down 
through  the  Christian  ages,  beholding  every 
rack  and  thumbscrew,  but  regardless  of  the 
many  martyrs;  putting  his  finger  upon  the 
dark  stains,  but  not  noticino^  the  illuminated 
pages  of  ecclesiastical  history;  complaining 
of  the  gloom  of  the  scliolastic  theology,  but 
blind  to  the  growing  light.  He  will  have  at 
his  tongue's  end  second-hand  and  unverified 
quotations  from  the  Calvinists,  and  he  will  de- 
scant knowingly  upon  the  ^'  Conflict  of  Reli- 
gion and  Science,"  though,  like  Dr.  Draper  in 
his  book,  it  never  occurs  to  him  to  spoil  his 
declamation  by  giving  an  exact  definition  of 
either — and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the  chapter. 
Now  all  this  is  pure  and  simple  demagoguism, 
— the  more  wicked  and  mischievous,  the  more 


DEMAGOGISM  IN   THEOLOGY.  23 

sacred  and  momentous  the  themes  which  it 
degrades. 
y/  But  the  demagogism  of  popular  infidelity 
certainly  does  not  justify,  and  cannot  be  put 
down  by,  the  manifestation  of  a  similar  spirit 
on  the  part  of  the  accredited  defenders  of  the 
faith.  The  theolosfical  demao-ogue  is  unfortu- 
nately  a  historical  and  not  altogether  anti- 
quated character.  He  passes  through  the  Bible 
and  history  in  the  same  blind,  partisan  way. 
He  fits  the  Bible  to  his  notion  of  what  it 
should  be.  He  casts  his  drao:-net  over  the 
Scriptures,  to  gather — it  matters  not  from  what 
part — proof-texts  for  his  favorite  dogma.  If 
a  religious  itinerant,  he  provides  himself  with 
no  scrip  or  staff,  save  a  Bagster's  Bible  and  a 
Concordance  ;  and  upon  these,  and  the  enlight- 
enment of  the  Holy  Ghost,  he  relies  for  the 
removal  of  all  difiiculties.  Not  knowing  what 
he  does,  nor  always  of  what  spirit  he  is  of,  he 
teaches  the  instructed,  and  often  turns  the 
Concordance  itself  into  the  worst  enemy  of  a 
sound  biblical  theology.  Or,  if  the  theologi- 
cal demagogue  be  not  a  mere  wandering  ex- 
horter^  but  a  man  of  some  training,  or  even 
one  wearinor  some  ofiicial  title  as  a  valiant  de- 
fender  of  the  faith,  he  will  still  be  inclined  to 
look  upon  all  biblical  learning  which  does  not 
make  for  his  traditional  opinions,  as  essentially 
rationalistic  and  unsound ;  he  will  have  a  con- 


24  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

fident  answer  for  every  doubt,  a  definite  knowl- 
edge of  truths  lying  beyond  exj)erience  on  the 
very  borders  of  revelation,  and  a  ready  method 
of  harmonizing  all  discrejDancies.  He  rarely, 
if  ever,  will  arise  in  the  morning,  like  Dr. 
Arnold,  mth  the  feeling  that  anything  per- 
taining to  his  creed  can  be  an  open  question ; 
and  if  Christian  thinkers  to  whom  nature, 
also,  is  a  revelation,  and  its  laws  as  sacred  as 
the  commandments  of  Sinai,  and  to  whom  all 
history  is  holy  ground,  refuse  to  accept  his 
favorite  interpretation  of  God's  Word,  or  his 
theory  of  its  mechanical  infallibility,  he  stands 
ready  to  read  them  out  of  the  party  which  in 
his  sincere,  perhaps,  but  narrow,  zeal  he  mis- 
takes for  the  Orthodox  Church.  But  nowhere, 
surely,  is  this  spirit  so  hurtful  as  in  the  con- 
sideration of  those  august  themes  of  which 
Jesus  spake  in  parables,  and  before  which  the 
wisest  are  as  little  children.  Not  with  such 
help  are  the  threatening  forms  of  unbelief  to 
be  laid  !  A  faith  that  leans  upon  its  own  pre- 
judices cannot  stand  long  in  the  days  when 
all  things  are  shaken.  There  is  only  one  state 
of  mind  which  in  such  investigations  is  truly 
and  profoundly  reverent  and  religious,  and 
that  is,  the  desire  to  find  the  facts  as  they  are. 
Whoever  is  afraid  of  science  does  not  believe 
in  God  !  Though  the  truths  which  the  several 
sciences  have  discovered  in  the  various  fields 


THE    THIRD   EPOCH.  25 

of  inquiry  are,  with  difficulty,  brought  together 
and  harmonized ;  though  the  facts  of  nature, 
history,  and  consciousness,  lie  before  our  rea- 
son often  unconnected  and  broken,  like  those 
fragments  of  Assyrian  records  which  have 
been  thrown  together  in  the  British  Museum ; 
we  should,  nevertheless,  regard  every  one  of 
them  as  of  value,  and  as  having  its  own  place 
and  worth  in  the  record  of  God's  creative  pur- 
pose which,  some  day,  we  may  hope  not 
merely  to  decipher  by  syllables  and  to  know 
in  part,  but  to  comprehend  in  its  length  and 
its  breadth,  and  to  read  as  one  grand,  con- 
nected story. 

Another  caution  should  be  observed  in  the 
discussion  of  these  topics,  and  particularly  in 
the  consideration  of  those  questions  which  be- 
long partly  to  natural  science  and  partly  to 
moral  and  religious  philosophy.  It  should  not 
l/be  forgotten  that  we  have  entered,  oi*  at  least 
our  most  scientific  science  and  most  believing 
faith  are  now  entering  upon,  what  may  be  de- 
scribed as  a  third  epoch  of  modern  thought. 
For  the  great  question  between  religion  and 
science,  like  other  important  movements  of 
human  thought  and  life,  seems  destined  to 
pass  through  three  distinctive  stages  or  epochs. 
First  there  came  the  age  of  violent  attack 
upon  the  Bible  from  the  scientific  side,  and 
defence  as  violent.  This  controversy  was  in- 
2 


26  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

evitable.  It  resembled  the  ag^e  of  ao;itation  on 
the  question  of  slavery,  or  of  intemperance. 
A  great  many  things  were  written  and  said — 
in  the  order  of  history  had  to  be  written  and 
said — which  we  do  not  care  to  read  or  remem- 
ber now.  We  can  profitably  forget  many 
books  and  articles  in  which  writers  w^hose 
eyes  were  opening  to  the  truthfulness  of  the 
Creator  down  to  the  last  atom  and  least  fossil 
of  the  world,  attacked  the  received  biblical  ac- 
count of  a  creation  in  six  literal  days ;  and  we 
can  profitably  commit  also  to  the  limbo  of  for- 
gotten things  the  many  sei'mons  and  treatises 
in  which  good  men  whose  eyes,  though  not 
yet  open  to  the  new  light  of  science,  were  not 
closed  to  the  old  glory  of  revelation,  waxed 
valiant  in  their  mistaken  controversy  with  the 
prophets  and  priests  of  the  God  of  nature. 
Following  this  age  of  agitation  and  inevit- 
^  able  controversy,  was  the  second  epoch,  marked 
by  ingenious  attempts  atTIie  reconciliation  of 
reli2:ion  and  science.  It  resembled  the  as^e  of 
compromise  in  our  political  history.  Minds  of 
great  ability  have  been  engaged  in  this  work. 
Their  writings  are  characterized  by  mutual 
concessions  and  a  general  air  of  candor. 
Theologians  revise  their  interpretations  of 
Scripture,  and  are  fertile  in  theoi-ies  of  the 
harmony  between  Genesis  and  geology.  Scien- 
tists on  their  part,  their  liberty  of  investiga- 


THE    THIRD   EPOCH  2"] 

tion  being  granted,  grow  somewhat  less  ven- 
turesome on  religious  grounds.  Many  emi- 
nent scientific  men,  at  the  present  day,  find 
for  their  own  views  satisfactory  terms  of  truce 
with  theology  and  the  Bible,  and  even  Prof. 
Huxley,  when  on  the  scientific  war-path  in 
this  country,  preferred  to  attack  the  Miltonic 
rather  than  the  Mosaic  hypothesis  of  a  crea- 
tion."^ 

The  third  epoch  presses  hard  after  the 
second.  ""TTis  the  age  in  which  the  question  is 
hardly  asked.  Can  religion  and  science  be  rec- 
onciled ?  but  rather  its  question  is,  How  are 
we  to  use  the  help  of  both — the  light  of 
science,  and  of  the  spirit — in  a  rational  inter- 
pretation of  the  universe  ?  It  is,  in  short,  the 
age  of  critical  review  and  of  judicial  reconstruc- 
tion. There  are  not  wanting  signs  that  we  are 
already  entering  into  this  better  era.  At  least 
there  are  leading  minds,  profoundly  reverent 
of  truth,  in  both  camps,  who  entertain  this 
better  spirit,  and  who  represent  this  more  ad- 
vanced movement.     The  popular  mind,  possi- 


*  To  this  age  of  attempted  reconciliations  and  compromises 
belong  many  works  still  worth  reading ;  like  the  writings  of  Hugh 
Miller,  and  Prof.  Dana,  and  Prof.  Hitchcock,  and  those  papers  of 
Agassiz  which  touch  upon  the  questions  of  development  and 
typical  forms ;  and,  on  the  part  of  the  theologians,  the  essay,  in 
'•Aids  to  Faith,"  of  Dr.  McCaul ;  the  ''Six  Days  of  Creation," 
by  Tayler  Lewis,  the  essay  of  Rorison,  in  "Replies  to  Essays  and 
Reviews,"  and  other  articles  of  similar  tenor. 


28  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

bly,  may  be  now  in  the  tliick  of  the  contro- 
versy :  religion  and  science  still  seem  to  be  at 
war  in  the  workshops,  on  lyceum  jDlatforms, 
and  in  the  columns  of  the  "  Popular  Science 
Monthly  :  "  but  there  are  not  wanting  on  both 
sides  leaders  who  realize  that  there  is  and  can 
be  no  warfare  between  religion  and  science. 
It  is  simply  an  indication  of  human  ignorance 
and  error  whenever  the  two  are  brought  into 
collision.  And  it  is  a  noticeable  sign  of  this 
more  catholic  spirit  of  discussion — of  this  new 
and  better  era — that  nowadays  theologians 
are  the  first  to  rebuke  theologians  for  any 
manifestations  of  an  unscientific  spirit,  while 
there  are  scientists  quick  to  condemn  scientists 
for  any  over-confident  triumph  over  man's  re- 
ligious faiths ;  that  our  schools  of  theological 
training  are  endowing  chairs  of  instruction  in 
the  relations  of  science  to  religion  ;  that  clergy- 
men are  the  I'eady  purchasers  of  the  latest 
scientific  literature ;  and  that,  on  the  other 
hand,  an  eminent  scientist  like  Prof.  Tait  re- 
plies to  Mr.  Fronde's  needless  alarms.  Even 
that  stalwart  positivist,  Prof.  Tyndall,  seems 
ready  to  consider  terms  of  truce  with  religion  ; 
Virchow  is  constrained  to  administer  a  needed 
chastisement  to  Haeckel ;  and  our  own  Prof. 
Gray  can  preface  a  book  of  sympathetic  criti- 
cism on  Darwin  with  a  confession  of  substan- 
tial faith  in  the  Nicene  Creed.     Eminent  au- 


THE   COMPENSATIONS   OF   CRITICISM.       29 

thorities,  it  is  true,  may  still  be  cited  both  for 
a  science  that  removes  all  basis  for  belief  in 
the  spiritual  and  the  supersensible,  and  also 
for  a  science  which  finds  the  only  possible 
ground  of  explanation  for  the  natural  order  of 
things  in  a  spiritual  omnipresence.  If  Her- 
bert Spencer's  "  Physiological  Metaphysics," 
as  Pres.  Porter  has  justly  described  it,  repre- 
sents the  tendency  of  thought  in  the  former 
direction,  Hermann  Lotze  stands  in  eminent 
authority  as  the  rej^resentative  of  the  opposite 
tendency.  But  truth,  as  Lord  Bacon  long  ago! 
observed,  is  the  dauo^hter  of  time  not  of  au-! 
thority.  It  is  well  if  we  are  emei'ging  from 
the  ag^e  of  storm  and  bitterness  into  the  season 
of  calm,  and  broader  vision.  There  is  a  classic 
story  that  a  fire  once  ran  over  the  Pyrenean 
mountains,  destroying  all  the  vineyards  of  the 
inhabitants.  But,  as  the  villagers  mourned 
for  their  vines,  they  discovered  that  the  fire, 
which  had  destroyed  their  grapes,  had  opened 
by  its  heat  deep  fissures  in  the  rocks,  through 
which  gleamed  rich  veins  of  silver.  I  believe 
^that  the  terribly  destructive  criticism  of  our 
day  is  to  leave  us  richer  than  it  found  us.  It 
may  burn  up  many  of  our  traditions,  but  it 
will  disclose  to  us  deeper  and  precious  truths. 
Even  the  rationalistic  critics  of  Germany,  who 
have  labored  so  hard  to  destroy  the  historical 
credibility  of  our  Gospels,  have  left  us  greatly 


30  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

indebted  to  their  work- for  our  understanding 
of  the  Bible  and  religion.  There  was  once  an 
island,  so  runs  a  fable,  as  old  as  the  times  of 
Plato,  in  which  it  was  reported  there  was 
buried  much  fine  gold.  Many  came  and  up- 
turned the  stones,  and,  though  they  never 
found  the  gold  for  which  they  looked,  yet 
their  searching  after  it  prepared  a  barren  soil 
for  the  reception  of  the  seeds  which  the  winds 
and  the  birds  brought,  and  at  last  the  hidden 
treasure  appeared  in  olive-boughs  and  clusters 
of  grapes.  In  the  history  of  human  thought 
the  Grecian  fable  has  often  been  repeated. 
Wherever  we  see  the  investigators  at  work, 
even  though  they  search  sacred  soil  and  under- 
mine settled  opinions,  we  may  rest  assured 
that  the  Spirit  of  Truth  has  its  own  ends  to 
accomplish.  The  results  which  the  workman 
would  find  may  prove  worthless,  but  their  la- 
bors shall  not  be  wholly  lost.  Other  men  shall 
enter  in  and  partake  of  fruits  of  which  they 
never  thought.  So  the  evangelical  scholarship 
of  to-day  is  reaping,  and  is  destined  still  more 
richly  to  reap,  the  rewards  of  the  labors  of 
the  rationalistic  critics  of  Germany.  Though 
the  Tubingen  school  have  not  succeeded  in  find- 
ing the  explanation  of  Christianity  for  which 
they  sought,  they  have  succeeded  in  making  a 
great  historical  field  fruitful.  Historical  faith 
l/ds  to-day  greatly  indebted  to  historical  skepti- 


THE   GROWING   LIGHT.  3 1 

cism.  The  better  era  already  partly  come, 
and  in  part  still  to  come,  is  the  heir  of  the 
spoils  of  all  these  sciences. 

Such  considerations  should  remind  us  of  one 
more  needed  caution  in  discussing  these  large 
subjects.  They  belong  confessedly  in  part  to 
the  future.  We  stand  only  in  the  dawn  of  the 
coming  day  of  the  ]"econciliation  of  the  sciences, 
and  of  mental  peace, — that  millennium  of  minds 
for  which  all  sincere  thinkers  pray.  Much 
even  of  our  most  positive  and  lusty  science  is 
still  only  in  its  infancy.  Many  theories  which 
now  belong  to  the  scientific  imagination  may 
yet  be  brought  within  the  limits  of  definite 
knowledo-e.  Much  also  still  remains  doubtful 
concerning  the  results  already  won.  We  must 
be  cautious  not  to  mistake  scientific  specula- 
tions for  certain  revelations.  We  are  to  re- 
view old  faiths  in  lights  which  are  themselves, 
sometimes,  shifting ;  before  sciences  which  are 
still,  at  many  points,  open  and  growing.  We 
must  of  necessity  therefore  advance,  at  times, 
views  which  we  regard  simply  as  tentative,  or 
which  can  be  determined  as  yet  only  in  their 
outlines  and  broader  proportions.  The  details 
requisite  to  fill  up  some  views,  and  to  give  to 
our  conceptions  that  distinctness  and  vividness 
which  make  evident  their  ag^reement  with  the 
truth  of  things,  are  not  always  to  be  had  from 
the  assured  results  of  present  science.     But, 


32  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

notwitlistanding  these  confusions  and  limita- 
tions of  our  knowledge,  ifc  is  already  time 
that  we  should  begin  to  reset  our  theology, 
and  to  determine  the  question,  which  every  gen- 
eration must  ask  for  itself,  whether  what  we 
have  learned  and  do  know,  confirms,  or  not, 
what  we  have  believed.  With  this  purpose, 
and  in  recognition  of  the  demands  made  upon 
any  theological  writer  by  what  I  have  called 
the  third  and  crowning  era  of  modern  thought, 
the  following  pages  should  be  both  written 
and  read. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    HISTORICAL    GROWTH    OF    THE    BIBLE. 

We  are  to  bring,  then,  onr  inherited  faiths 
for  judgment  before  the  idea  of  development, 
which,  as  we  have  just  acknowledged,  is  a 
regnant  principle  of  modern  thought.  We 
submit,  first,  to  the  new  criticism  our  belief  in 
the  Bible.  Will  that  be  dissolved,  or  come 
forth  purified,  if  we  search  it  thoroughly  by 
this  scientific  method  of  inquiry  into  the  origin 
and  growth  of  existing  things,  —  a  method 
which  seems  to  be  the  powerful  solvent  of  old 
beliefs?  How  was  the  Bible  formed  ?  Does  it 
bear  witness  to,  and  is  it  the  result  of,  a  great 
historical  process  of  revelation  ?  It  will  be 
noticed  that  we  do  not  bring  to  the  front  in 
this  inquiry  any  question  touching  the  nature 
or  extent  of  inspiration.  We  do  not  regard 
the  question  of  inspiration  as  the  real  hinge 
upon  which  modern  controversy  over  the  Bible 
turns.  We  do  not  meet  the  scepticism  of  the 
hour  simply  by  proceeding  to  gather  evidences 
from  the  Scriptures  in  favor  of  their  inspira- 
tion.    The  doubt  is  larger  and  broader  than 

2* 


34  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

that  customary  circle  of  reasoning.  It  ques- 
4t  ^4ions  the  historical  fact  of  revelation  ;  and  the 
first  and  cliief  inquiry  for  us,  therefore,  con- 
cerns the  historical  fact  and  progress  of  revela- 
tion ;  the  second  and  subordinate  question  re- 
lates to  the  manner  or  ways  in  which  men  may 
have  been  trained,  or  inspired,  to  receive  and 
to  become  the  bearers  of  a  revelation.  Hence 
Van  affirmative  and  very  positive  answer  may 
be  given  to  the  former  question,  Have  we  a 
series  or  order  of  events  and  teaching  which 
constitute  a  revelation  from  God  \  while 
doubt  or  hesitancy  may  be  felt  in  answering 
the  other  question,  How  was  the  Word  of 
God  made  known,  or  what  was  the  precise 
nature  and  degree  of  inspiration?  "Every 
^how,' "  long  ago  said  Aristotle,  "rests  upon  a 
^  that ; '  "  and  we  may  have  very  different  con- 
ceptions of  the  manner  of  a  revelation  which, 
nevertheless,  we  may  be  agreed  in  accepting 
as  a  fact. 

Indeed,  to  require  assent  to  a  particular 
theory  of  inspiration  may  put  in  jeopardy  be- 
lief in  the  very  fact  of  revelation  which  that 
theory  is  intended  to  secure.  We  dwell 
upon  this  obvious,  but  too  often  overlooked, 
distinction  because  it  is  of  great  importance 
for  us  to  remember  that  the  real,  decisive  point 
in  the  modern  attack  and  defence  of  the  Bible 
is  a  question  of  the  historical  fact  of  revela- 


INSPIRATION  AND  REVELATION.  35 

tion ;  and  that  question  can  be  determined 
only  by  a  large  and  many-sided  view  of  the 
forces  and  processes  which  have  made  human 
history  and  the  Bible.  Ewald,  in  one  of  his 
suggestive  passages,"^  reminds  us  that  God 
stands  alike  over  against  all  man's  powers  and 
capacities,  though  at  times  drawing  nearer  to 
one  side  of  us  than  to  another  ;  and,  therefore, 
man  must  turn  his  spirit,  with  all  its  powers 
and  capacities,  perfectly  unto  God  in  order  not 
to  be  estranged  from  him.  Thus,  when  we 
consider  the  manifoldness  of  God's  relations  to 
us,  and  the  variety  of  our  possible  impressions 
of  the  Beino^  who  besets  us  behind  and  before 
and  on  every  side,  we  should  expect  that  a 
revelation  from  God  would  be  a  Divine  mani- 
festation "  at  sundry  times,  and  in  divers  man- 
ners ;  "  f  we  should  expect  to  find  it  as  a  great 
diversified  fact  and  manifold  influence  in 
human  history,  pressing  in  upon  man  from 
different  sides  of  his  complex  being ;  moulding 
society,  shaping  events,  forming  history ;  not 
merely  confirming  itself  at  times  by  special 
signs  and  wonders,  but  permanently  embody- 
ing itself  in  ordinances  and  institutions ;  and, 
if  one  may  so  speak,  naturalizing  its  super- 
natural powers  in  the  forces  and  laws  of  a 


*  Lehre  der  Bible  vonGott,,  vol.  ii,,  p.  101. 
t  Heb.  i  1. 


36  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

theocracy,  or  a  church.  The  Bible,  certainly, 
was  never  dropped  ready-made  from  heaven. 
Max  Muller,  indeed,  goes  so  far  as  to  de- 
clare that  a  revelation  ready  made  and  given 
to  men,  like  a  language  formed  in  heaven, 
would  have  been  a  foreim  relio:ion  that  men 
could  not  understand."^  Neither  is  the  Bible 
a  collection  of  sacred  oracles.  Prof.  Beyschlag 
may  overstate  the  frequency  of  this  misuse  of 
the  Bible  among  theologians,  but  he  hardly 
exaggerates  the  evil  results  of  treating  the 
Bible  as  a  mere  collection  of  oracular  texts 
when  he  says :  "  So  long  as  the  majority  of 
theologians  treat  the  Word  of  God  as  a  book 
of  oracles,  so  long  will  it  appear  as  a  book  of 
fables  to  the  majority  of  the  educated  laity." 
It  is  equally  certain  that  the  Bible  is  not, 
either  in  its  contents  or  form,  a  systematic 
text-book  of  divinity.  On  the  contrary,  if  we 
wish  to  abstract  a  system  of  theology  from  the 
Bible,  we  fall  into  hopeless  contradictions  if 
we  begin  by  regarding  it  as  a  text-book  of 
divinity.  It  is  rather  a  book  of  life  ;  and  we 
must  discover  its  meanings  as  we  would  study 
the  mysteries  of  nature,  or  interpret  the  change- 
ful drama  of  life.  Jesus  regarded  the  truth 
of  revelation  as  a  word  to  be  done.  (John 
iii.    21.)      Revelation  is  pre-eminently  truth 


*  Contemporary  Review,  Nov.  '78,  p.  709. 


RE  VELA  TION  THR  O  UGH  HIS  TOR  V.         37 

whicli  has  been  done  in  history.  The  Bible, 
certainly,  presents  a  spectacle  of  the  contests 
of  embodied  truths  with  falsehoods  clothed  in 
human  forms ;  a  spectacle  in  which  we  behold 
right  and  wrong  coming  and  going  in  a  proph- 
et's mantle,  or  the  armor  of  a  king  ;  where  we 
see  truth  succeeding,  and  error  dying,  in  the 
issues  of  human  lives,  and  the  rise  and  fall  of 
kingdoms.  The  great  doctrines  of  the  Bible 
are  vividly  revealed  through  its  characters, 
and  their  work,  and  in  the  progress  of  the  whole 
history.  In  this  book  for  all  peoples  and  ages, 
the  most  abstract  and  impalpable  truths  seem 
taken,  as  it  were,  from  the  very  air,  from  dis- 
tant realms  of  the  spirit,  and  clothed  with 
flesh  and  blood;  they  are  revealed  walking 
with  men,  dwelling  in  their  homes,  made  con- 
crete and  visible  in  the  person  of  patriarch, 
prophet,  or  apostle;  and  they  are  summed 
up  and  declared,  in  the  vernacular  of  every 
man's  heart,  in  the  Word  made  flesh, 
v/  If,  then,  we  have  any  revelation  from  God 
at  all,  we  have  it  at  the  heart  of  a  great  his- 
torical development ;  and  if  we  are  to  find  the 
evidence  of  it  anywhere,  we  must  seek  for  it 
as  the  cause  and  vital  force  of  historical  move- 
ments and  events  which  otherwise  would  never 
have  arisen,  or,  at  least,  would  not  have  as- 
sumed their  special  shape  and  significance. 
Revelation  is  in  deed  as  well  as  in  word,  "  in  its 


3^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

core  historical " — a  "  Thus  did  the  Lord  "  as 
well  as  a  "  Thus  said  the  Lord."  *  We  are  to 
mark  the  footprints  of  a  higher  Power  along 
the  ways  in  which  he  has  led  his  people. 
^Revelation  was  an  inspired  course  of  history. 
The  prophetic  word  accompanying  the  dealings 
of  God  with  his  people,  the  written  Scripture, 
is  only  one  element,  and  sometimes  the  least 
important  part,  of  the  broad  historical  process 
of  revelation.  In  this  larger  and  more  satisfac- 
tory view  of  revelation,  to  which  fortunately 
modern  biblical  criticism  has  compelled  us  to 
advance,  two  distinct  conceptions  of  the  Bible 
and  the  relig^ion  of  the  Bible  are  involved. 
It  will  be  necessary  for  us  to  linger  with  the 
first  of  these  only  long  enough  to  enable  us  to 
secure  a  firm  foothold  from  which  we  may 
spring  to  the  second  and  higher  conclusion 
which  many  of  our  best  guides  in  these  matters 
have  already  safely  reached. 
y/  The  first  and  lower  truth,  then,  is  the 
evident  fact  that  our  Bible  is  a  historical 
growth — that  is  to  say,  it  is  a  book,  or  litera- 
ture rather,  which  grew  up  out  of  the  life  of 
a  people  ;  which  in  its  growth  was  intimately 
connected  with,  and  dependent  upon,  the  de- 
velopment of  that  national  life;  and  which 
consequently  bears  in  its  very    structure  the 


*  See  Fisher,  Beginnings  of  Christianity,  Ch.  1. 


THE  MATERIALS   OF    THE  BIBLE.  39 

marks  of  tlie  times  amid  the  ideas  and  exis^eii- 
cies  of  which  it  grew  to  be  at  last  the  world's 
Bible.  The  evidences  of  this  historical  forma- 
tion of  the  Bible  lie  upon  its  very  surface, 
and  they  are  confirmed  by  the  more  critical 
study  of  its  contents.  Very  much  as  the 
wood-cutter  can  judge,  from  the  successive 
layers  of  wood  laid  bare  by  his  axe,  how 
many  seasons  the  tree  has  been  growing;  so  a 
close  scrutiny  of  the  Bible  shows  unmistakable 
signs  of  the  different  ages  and  conditions  of 
its  growth.  The  very  first  book  in  the  Bible, 
for  example,  the  book  of  Genesis,  discloses  to 
the  critical  eye  the  marks  of  a  composite 
structure — of  different  layers,  if  I  may  so 
speak,  in  its  formation.  It  evidently  has 
I/Gassed  through  several  periods  of  growth,  and 
was  not  the  pure  creation  of  Moses'  mind 
evoked  in  a  day.  In  the  "  Chaldean  Account 
of  Genesis,"  Prof.  Smith,  the  successful  Assy- 
rian scholar  whose  early  death  is  a  positive 
loss  to  human  knowledge,  has  deciphered 
frao:ments  of  a  tradition  of  the  creation  which 
seems  to  have  floated  down  from  beyond  the 
beginnings  of  history,  and  with  some  versions 
of  which  Abraham,  in  his  childhood,  may  have 
been  familiar,  and  which  in  some  Hebrew 
song  Moses  may  have  been  taught  from  his 
mother's  lips.  In  our  book  of  Genesis,  it  is 
now  generally  admitted,  two  streams  of  nar- 


40  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

rative,  at  least,  may  be  distinguislied ;  and 
some  Hebraists  think  they  discern  indications 
of  still  other  sources  of  the  history,  whicli 
were  combined  in  one  account  by  the  final 
editor  of  the  whole.  Without  adopting  to 
the  full  extent  the  often  too  ingenious  opinions 
of  these  critics,  we  do  not  leave  firm  ground 
when  we  say  that,  however  God  may  have 
inspired  Moses,  he  probably  did  give  to  the 
writer  of  the  book  of  Genesis  earlier  narra- 
tives, and  considerable  historical  material  for 
the  composition  of  that  book  in  its  present 
form.  The  results  of  biblical  criticism  do 
not  warrant  us  in  representing  God  as  the 
hard  taskmaster  that  some  of  our  mechanical 
theories  of  inspiration — unwittingly,  perhaps — 
cause  him  to  appear  to  be ;  for  he  never  set 
sacred  historian  or  prophet  at  work  to  make 
bricks  without  straw.  The  historical  materi- 
als, and  all  the  necessary  conditions,  we  may 
be  confident,  were  present  whenever  the  work- 
men were  called  by  the  Lord  to  do  his  work. 

In  general,  it  may  be  said,  that  three  sour- 
ces and  three  great  currents  of  Hebrew  life 
are  to  be  discovered  in  the  Old  Testament — 
the  prophetic  teaching,  the  priestly  lore,  and 
the  reflective  wisdom  of  the  wise  among 
the  people;*    and  these  three  influences    are 


*  Smith  :    Art.  Bible,  Encyclopedia  Brit. 


THE  MATERIALS   OF   THE  BIBLE.         4 1 

sometimes  blended,  and  indistinguishable ;  at 
others,  separate  and  distinct ;  and,  sometimes, 
while  flowing  side  by  side,  in  the  same  narra- 
tive, they  retain  each  its  own  peculiar  color- 
ing. Some  Hebraists  go  much  farther  than 
this  in  their  analysis  of  the  component  parts 
of  the  Pentateuch,  but  it  is  enouo;h  for  our 
purpose,  and  safer,  to  keep  here  well  within 
the  limits  of  the  facts  generally  admitted  by 
those  biblical  scholars  whose  opinions  are  of 
weight.  Striking  evidences  of  the  growth  of 
the  Bible,  of  the  prolonged  historical  process 
through  which  the  Word  of  God  came  to  man, 
might  easily  be  gathered  from  the  writings  of 
the  prophets.  Even  in  their  visions,  and 
most  glowing  inspirations,  the  prophets  are 
not  independent  of  the  past.  The  history  of 
the  chosen  people  appears  reclothed  in  the 
drapery  of  their  visions ;  and  the  experience 
of  former  days  is  echoed,  again  and  again,  in 
their  speech  of  coming  blessings  or  retribu- 
tions. Every  successive  book  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament represents  more  inspired  thought, 
more  religious  experience,  more  Divine  influ- 
ences, than  were  granted  directly  to  the  proph- 
et who  wrote  it  as  his  own  personal  gift. 
V/^We  have,  in  short,  in  the  Old  Testament,  the 
growing  life,  the  maturing  thought,  the  ri- 
pened fruit,  of  the  Hebrew  mind,  and  the 
Hebrew  history.     Accordingly  the  Old  Testa- 


42  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

ment  shows  tlironghout  tlie  stamp  of  tlie 
genius  of  tlie  people  out  of  whose  history  it 
grew.  Its  structure  reveals  peculiarities  of 
the  Semitic  genius.  What  the  architecture 
of  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem  was  to  the  ar- 
chitecture of  the  Acropolis  at  Athens,  that 
the  style  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  is  to  the  litera- 
ture of  the  Aryan  world.  The  literature  of 
Greece  is  not  more  thoroughly  Grecian ;  the 
literature  of  the  as^e  of  Elizabeth  is  not  more 
genuinely  English ;  than  the  Old  Testament  is 
thoroughly  and  genuinely  the  literature  of  the 
peculiar  jDeople,  bearing  upon  it  the  unmistaka- 
ble stam]:)  of  the  Semitic  genius.  Under  this 
broad  seal  of  the  national  genius  of  the  He- 
brew race,  there  appears  often  the  mark  and 
superscrij^tion  of  individual  minds  in  these 
Scriptures.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
nature  of  the  insjDiration  of  the  prophets,  we 
have  no  evidence  of  the  miraculous  conversion 
of  any  mind  into  a  different  order  of  genius 
by  the  spirit  of  the  Lord.  Ezra,  the  jDriestly 
scribe,  who  collected  and  edited  the  book  of 
the  law,  might  have  been  made  a  better  and 
more  accurate  scribe  by  the  grace  of  God ;  but 
he  was  never  born  a  poet,  and  we  cannot,  with- 
out violence,  conceive  of  him  as  so  inspired  as 
to  have  been  the  author  of  those  vivid  de- 
scriptions of  scenery,  those  little  side-pictures 
of  human  life,  those  fine  touches  of  feeling  in 


IMMEDIATE  OBJECTS  OF  THE  SCRIPTURES.  43 

view  of  natural  objects,  whicli  abound  in 
some  of  tlie  Psalms  of  the  royal  shepherd,  or 
in  the  imagery  of  the  later  prophets.  How- 
ever, then,  the  Spirit  of  God  may  have  used 
for  his  higher  purposes  the  minds  of  men, 
we  can  be  assured  that  he  did  not  overpower 
their  natural  habits  of  expression,  or  hold 
individual  genius,  as  one  might  catch  a  song- 
bird, passive  and  palpitating,  in  the  grasp  of 
his  Almighty  hand. 

While  endeavorino^  to  fix  in  our  minds  a 
true  historical  conception  of  revelation,  one 
other  fact  should  not  be  foro^otten.     The  ob- 

Inject  for  which  each  Scripture  was  written,  was 
first  an  immediate  and  local  one.  The  law- 
giver was  sent  with  the  tables  of  the  com- 
mandments in  his  hands  to  Israel,  and  the 
prophets  were  the  preachers  of  righteousness 
in  their  day  and  generation.  The  successive 
sparks  of  Divine  illumination  were  struck,  all 
of  them,  out  of  the  necessities  of  the  times. 
The  different  Scriptures  had  first,  an  imme- 
diate, national,  or  even  local,  work  to  do,  be- 
fore they  had,  or  could  have,  a  remote,  univer- 
sal work  for  all  nations  and  times.     If  we  are 

\/not  to  do  despite,  therefore,  to  the  Spirit's  chosen 
historical  method  of  revelation,  we  must  read 
every  Scripture  in  its  own  light,  and  interpret 
it  in  view  of  its  own  surroundings,  and  in  its 
place  in  the  gradual  development  of  the  Bible. 


44  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

^The  historical  process  of  revelation  must  be 
brought  to  the  forefront,  if  we  would  see  jus- 
tice done  to-day  to  the  Bible. 

We  have  now  cleared  the  ground  for  the 
second  and  more  important  work  before  us. 
Granting  that  the  Bible  is  a  historical  growth, 
and  that  it  shows  on  every  page  the  signs  of 
the  national  life  in  connection  with  which  it 
was  developed,  how  are  we  to  explain  its 
growth,  or  to  conceive  of  its  development? 
What  was  its  origin  and  course  ?  of  what  forces 
was  it  the  product,  or,  if  you  please,  the  evo- 
lution ?  Kenan  seeks  for  the  sources  of  this 
wonderful  literature,  in  the  naturally  mono- 
theistic temperament  of  the  Semitic  ])eople. 
But  the  great  rationalistic  authority,  Kuenen, 
taking  his  stand  for  the  survey  of  the  history 
of  Israel  amid  the  prophetic  literature  of 
the  eighth  century  B.C.,  seeks,  by  means  of 
"  Israel's  peculiar  fortunes,"  to  account  for  the 
rise  of  the  pure  worship  of  Jehovah,  from 
the  originally  polytheistic  religion  of  a  rude 
people,  once  living  in  Goshen,  whose  tribal 
God  was  Jahveh.  So  the  critics  who  seek 
for  some  purely  natural  explanation  of  the  al- 
together peculiar  religious  history  of  Israel 
fall  out  among  themselves  by  the  way.  The 
negative  criticism  of  the  Bible,  as  it  is  called, 
because  it  begins  its  inquiry  with  a  denial  oi 
anything   supernatural,    has   displayed   great 


THE  FORCES  IN  THIS  DEVELOPMENT.     45 

skill  in  detecting  any  cross  purposes  in  tlie 
biblical  narratives  wliicli  may  be  construed  as 
historical  signs  pointing  in  the  direction  of  a 
naturalistic  development  of  the  Hebrew  wor- 
ship ;  but  the  plain,  broad  landmarks  of  the 
course  of  revelation  from  Moses  to  Christ,  the 
generality  of  men  cannot  so  easily  pass  by."^ 

But  can  we  who  have  felt  ourselves  con- 
strained to  go  a  certain  length  with  the  ra- 
tionalistic critics,  stop  short  of  their  extreme 
conclusions  ?  If  we  go  with  them  one  mile,  will 
they  not  compel  us  to  go  with  them  twain  ?  Is  it 
not  safer,  it  will  be  asked,  not  to  yield  an  inch 
to  this  destructive  German  criticism — to  stand 
firmly  in  the  old  ways  ?  But  we  cannot,  without 
covering  our  own  eyes,  and  deafening  our  own 
ears,  refuse  to  confess  that  Ave  have  received 
from  modern  biblical  scholarship  some  new 
light,  and  that  voices  which  we  may  not  mistrust 


*  Kuenen's  "Course  of  Israel's  Religious  Development,"  seems 
to  me  to  be  decidedly  top-heavy  ; — the  overgrowth  of  prophecy  in 
the  eighth  century  B.C.,  is  too  great  for  the  historical  stem  which 
he  supposes  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  and  for  the  root 
which  he  would  place  beneath  it  all  in  the  Mosaic  age.  I  should 
think  a  critical  reply  of  great  force,  to  Kuenen,  and  the  rational- 
istic interpreters,  might  be  made  by  taking  simply  those  parts 
of  the  Old  Testament  which  they  admit  to  be  of  historical  worth, 
and  by  showing,  on  their  own  ground,  how  these  Scriptures  have 
more  in  them,  and  require  more  before  them,  than  the  theories 
of  those  writers  allow.  Besides  this,  are  the  evidences  of  the  gen- 
uineness and  worth  of  historical  writings  ;  and  the  positions  of 
scholars  like  Delitzsch  and  Keil  show,  at  least,  that  the  negative 
criticism  cannot  claim  undisputed  possession  of  that  field. 


4<5  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

call  US  to  advance  to  some  fresh  views  of  the 
providence  of  God  in  revelation.  The  facts, 
which  up  to  a  certain  jDoint  all  look  one  way, 
have  led  us  to  follow  the  modern  biblical 
criticism  so  far,  at  least,  as  to  acknowledge  the 
historical  development  of  the  Bible.  But  we 
find  no  road  further  in  the  direction  pursued 
by  the  most  advanced  negative  criticism.  We 
hesitate  to  take  our  direction  from  our  imagi- 
nation, and  to  plunge  into  the  thicket.  We  look 
around,  sceptical  of  our  own  impressions,  and 
sceptical  of  our  new  and  over-confident  guides, 
and  we  notice  signs  still  discoverable  in  this 
ancient  history,  and  still  to  be  read  broadly 
marked  upon  this  literature,  which,  if  we  fol- 
low them  carefully  and  without  a  predetermi- 
nation to  take  the  short  cut  of  some  favorite 
philosophy,  may  possibly  lead  us  out  to  a  clear 
and  safe  conclusion.  We  who  entertain  no 
invincible  prejudice  against  evidences  of  God's 
special  action  in  human  affairs  (though  that 
Divine  action  may  seem  at  times  to  our  partial 
knowledge  of  the  universe  to  work  contrary 
to  nature,  or  miraculously)  are  ready  to  see  the 
signs  of  natural  forces  and  conditions  which 
others  point  out  in  the  course  of  the  religion 
of  Israel — to  go  the  first  mile  with  the  critics; 
but  we  are  j)revented  by  many  signs,  which 
we  also  observe,  of  God's  special  method  in 
training  Israel  and  forming  a  Bible  for  the 


THE  FORCES  IN  THIS  DEVELOPMENT.     47 

world,  from  going  a  second  mile  with  the  ra- 
tionalists, and  losing  ourselves  in  their  maze 
of  uncertainties  and  conjectures.  We  cannot 
stand  still,  indeed,  with  the  older  supernatu- 
ralists  to  whom  the  laws  and  courses  of  nature 
are  as  though  they  were  not ;  but  neither  can 
we  run  to  the  extreme  of  that  philosophy  in 
whose  view  spiritual  powers  count  for  nothing 
in  this  world.  Believing  in  both  God  and 
x^hature,  we  have  in  these  studies  of  the  Bible, 
and  the  religion  of  the  Bible,  to  keep,  if  possi- 
ble, open  eyes  for  all  the  facts.  And  we  have, 
at  this  point,  to  deal  with  this  question  of  fact : 
Could  the  Semitic  genius  of  itself,  in  its  act- 
ual historical  environment,  have  produced  the 
world's  Bible  ?  Or  are  this  history  and  this 
literature,  which  is  its  fruit,  in  a  peculiar  man- 
ner a  sacred  history  and  a  sacred  fruit  ?  Can 
we  account  for  Israel,  and  his  Scriptures, 
without  some  special  activity  of  God  ?  When 
we  have  admitted  all  that  we  must  admit  con- 
cernino^  the  natural  forces  at  work  in  the 
gradual  formation  of  the  Bible ;  when  we 
have  learned  all  that  can  be  known  of  the  soil, 
the  climate,  the  seasons,  the  whole  conceivable 
effect  of  natural  forces  in  producing  and  shap- 
ing the  Hebrew  life  and  literature ;  then,  are 
we  prepared  to  say  that  these  causes  are  suf- 
ficient to  explain  this  historical  growth  of 
which  we  ouoht  to  o-ive  some  reasonable   ac- 


4^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

count?  or  must  we  admit  that  tlie  lio:lit  of 
Heaven,  as  well  as  the  chemistry  of  the  earth, 
had  something  to  do  with  the  growth  of  this 
tree  of  life  whose  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of 
the  nations?  Our  final  answer  to  this  great 
question  between  naturalism  and  faith  in  a 
Divine  revelation,  can  be  reached  only  as  the 
result  of  several  convergent  lines  of  reasoning. 
Whatever  it  may  be,  it  should  not  be  the  con- 
clusion, as  it  too  often  is  made  to  be,  of  some 
single  course  of  inquiry,  or  special  study ;  but 
it  should  be  the  conclusion  of  all  our  reason- 
ings— a  wisdom  which  is  the  sum  of  the  whole 
matter.*^ 

In  entering  upon  this  broad  inquiry  concern- 
ing the  supernatural  development  of  E,eve- 
lation  we  begin  with  certain  significant  facts 
Avhich  the  progress  of  our  questioning  thus  far 
has  brought  close  at  hand.  One  circumstance, 
V^hich  at  once  arrests  our  attention,  is  the  sin- 
gular fact  that  Israel  by  some  means  gained 
an  exalted  religion,  while  those  tribes  to  which 
it  was  nearest  of  kin  remained  on  the  lowest 
levels  of  idolatrous  corruption.  But  this  con- 
trast between  Israel  and  his  brethren,  remark- 
able  in  itself,   appears  the   more    significant 


*  So  Henry  Rogers,  in  his  "  Superhuman  Origin  of  the  Bible," 
supports,  by  a  great  variety  of  considerations,  this  thesis:  "  That 
the  liible  is  not  such  a  book  as  man  would  have  made,  if  he 
could  ;  or  could  have  made,  if  he  would." 


THE  RESISTANCE   OF  ISRAEL,  49 

when  we  detect  in  Israel  the  same  disposition 
to  evil  winch  ran  riot  in  the  idolatries  of  kin- 
dred and  surroundino^  tribes.  We  find  it  dif- 
ficult  upon  any  known  law  of  heredity  to  con- 
ceive of  the  pure  worship  of  the  prophets  as 
the  outgrowth  of  ^'  the  natural  religious  geni- 
ality of  Israel,"  when  we  remember  that  the 
Israelites  were  naturally  a  stifE-necked  people, 
and  that  their  religion  seems  to  have  gained 
its  authority  over  them  only  by  a  prolonged 
struo^o^le  ag^ainst  their  nature.  Here  is  an 
evolatioii  not  in  accordance  with  the  natural 
tendency  to  variation,  and  contrary  to  the 
immediate  historical  environment.  The  de- 
velopment of  the  Bible,  and  the  religion  of  the 
Bible,  makes  head  seemingly  against  the  nat- 
ural gravitation  of  the  Israelitish  history.  A 
people  are  pressed  forward  who  are  always 
turning  back.  A  religion  is  lifted  up  into  the 
light  when  the  external  forces  tend  to  carry  it 
down  into  the  darkness.  The  prophets,  whom 
Kuenen  himself  admits  as  trustworthy  witness* 
es,  give  unequivocal  testimony  to  this  prolonged 
resistance  of  Israel  against  the  stream  which, 
nevertheless,  carried  it  along  as  by  a  resistless 
power.  The  children  of  Israel  are  not  willing 
pupils  under  this  higher  education.  Isaiah 
represents  their  God  as  saying,  "Thou  hast 
made  me  to  serve  with  thy  sins,  thou  hast 
ivearied  me  with  thine  iniquities."  (Isaiah 
3 


50  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

xliii.  24;  Jer.  ii.  10,  seq.)  This  opposition  of 
the  nature  of  Israel  to  a  religion  supposed  to  be 
derived  from  its  nature  presents  a  strange 
anomaly.  We  find  a  dualism  between  the 
heart  of  the  people  and  the  formative  princi- 
ple of  their  religion,  which  suggests  the  in- 
fluence of  a  hio-her  Power.  Oehler  seizes 
upon  the  divine  significance  of  this  fact  when 
he  says  :  "  The  whole  Old  Testament  remains  a 
sealed  book,  if  one  shuts  himself  against  the 
perception  of  how  the  overcoming  the  natui'al 
being  of  the  people  of  Israel  is  the  goal  of 
the  whole  divine  education,  and  therefore  the 
entire  leading  of  the  people  moves  in  a  dual- 
ism." ^* 

The  historical  growth  of  the  Bible  jiresents 
to  our  notice  another  peculiar  fact  which  we 
should  consider  at  this  point.  We  liave  to 
l/ render  a  reasonable  account  of  tlie  formation 
of  the  canon  of  the  Scrij)ture.  What,  we  ask, 
was  the  principle  or  law  of  selection  in  the 
formation  of  the  canon  ?  Israel  was  evidently 
a  selected  race — the  chosen  people.  Its  career 
from  generation  to  generation  thrusts  upon 
our  notice,  at  a  thousand  points,  the  signs  of 
its  selection.  The  working  of  the  same  pow- 
er or  law  of  selection,  by  which  Israel  was 
chosen,  appears  also  in  the  formation  of  the 


Theologie  des  A.  T.,  i.,  s.  21. 


THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   CANON.  5 1 

Bible.  It  is  a  selection  from  the  literature  of 
Israel,  which  betrays  some  principle  or  method 
of  selection.  That  principle  governs  also  the 
formation  of  the  New  Testament  as  well  as 
the  Old.  The  canon  apparently  formed  itself. 
By  virtue  of  some  peculiar  selective  principle 
of  its  own,  the  Bible  grew  into  its  present  ca- 
nonical form.  We  cannot  trace  the  determi- 
nation of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  back  to  the  v/ill  of  any  one  man,  or 
the  decree  of  any  body  of  men.  It  will 
hardly  be  argued  that  Nehemiah,  or  the  syna- 
gogue, or  the  authority  of  any  great  scribe, 
fixed  the  bounds  of  the  Old  Testament ;  and 
Ezra's  work  in  gathering  together  the  books 
of  the  law  could  not  have  been  an  arbitrary 
selection  of  a  portion  of  the  existing  Hebrew 
literature.  The  work  of  the  scribe  followed 
the  indications  of  some  principle  of  selection 
contained  in  the  sacred  writings  themselves 
which  were  delivered  to  him.  Still  less  was 
the  New  Testament  canon  formed  by  the  will 
of  man.  The  Church  did  not  create  it  by  the 
decree  of  any  council,  though  afterward  the 
Church  by  its  councils  recognized  the  fact  that 
a  certain  body  of  writings  had  grown  into 
canonical  authority.  The  canon  of  Scripture 
cannot  be  made  to  rest  upon  the  Church ;  for 
the  Bible  and  the  Church  w^ere  both  the  simul- 
taneous outgrowths  of  something  which  w^as 


52  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

ill  the  world  before  them  both — they  were  the 
twin-fruits  of  a  life  which  was  before  them 
both.  Ewald  has  put,  as  a  running  caption 
over  one  of  the  chapters  of  his  last  work,  the 
words :  ''  The  sacredness  of  the  Bible  is 
neither  arbitrarily  willed  nor  ai'bitrarily  to  be 
determined."  *  The  will  of  man  did  not  fix 
the  canon  of  Scripture,  and  it  is  not  to  be  de- 
termined by  the  will  of  man.  It  is  not,  it 
never  was,  the  creation  of  any  human  act. 
But  neither  can  we  refer  to  any  miracle  for 
its  origin.  We  certainly  have  no  supplemen- 
tary revelation  to  determine  the  metes  and 
bounds  of  revelation.  Nothing,  moreover,  is 
gained  by  saying  the  canon  of  Scripture  was 
formed  by  the  general  consent  of  men,  for  that 
is  an  explanation  which  is  no  explanation;  it 
is  simply  another  form  of  stating  the  same  fact 
that  we  have  a  body  of  writings  which  are  uni- 
versally recognized  as  authoritative  Scripture, 
that  is,  as  canonical.  The  general  consent,  or 
uniform  tradition,  by  which  the  Scriptures  are 
accepted,  is  itself  the  eifect  whose  cause  we 
wish  to  know.  What  power  has  formed,  and 
bound  together  in  one  cluster,  and  preserved, 
these  fruits  of  the  life  of  Israel,  and  suffered 
others  to  fall  to  the  ground  ?  What  is  the 
law  of  survival  here  ?    What  is  the  real  f orma- 


Lehre  der  Bible  von  Gott,  i.  3,  8. 


THE   GROWTH  OF   THE   CANON.  53 

tive  principle  of  the  biblical  canon  ?  The  per- 
son who  can  recognize  no  influence  of  God 
anywhere  in  the  world,  or  in  his  own  heart, 
must  of  course  seek  to  explain  the  formation 
of  the  Bible  on  some  principle  of  merely  natu- 
ral selection.  He  can  allow  nothing  but  the 
ordinary  forces  and  laws  of  the  human  mind 
to  have  been  at  work  in  the  production  of  this 
unique  historical  phenomenon — the  Bible  of  the 
world — however  he  may  endeavor  to  help  him- 
self by  emphasizing  the  peculiar  circumstances 
or  conditions  of  earlier  ages.  The  person,  on 
the  other  hand,  to  whom  a  slow  historical  pro- 
cess without  miraculous  sis^ns  can  afford  little 
proof  of  the  work  of  God,  will  seek  to  find  in 
the  inspired  act  of  some  prophet  or  apostle, 
or,  if  that  is  not  to  be  thought  of,  at  least 
in  some  divinely  imparted  authority  of  the 
Church,  a  special,  supernatural  basis  for  the 
present  canon  of  the  Scripture.  But  to  the 
mind  that  has  learned  to  recognize  the  divine 
action  in  the  whole  movement  of  human  his- 
tory, this  seemingly  natural  selection  of  the 
Bible — this  growth  of  the  Bible,  as  ifc  were  of 
itself,  without  observation — may  be  a  very  im- 
pressive sign  that  it  was  God's  work ;  that  its 
development  to  its  perfect  and  final  form  was 
after  a  divine  method  and  power.  And  this 
conviction  is  deepened  by  the  fact  that  this 
quiet,   unobserved,    most   natural    process   of 


54  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

selecting  the  Bible  from  all  surrounding  litera- 
ture shows,  if  we  mark  closely  its  progress, 
and  survey  the  whole  result  of  it,  unmistak- 
able indications  of  intelligence  and  design. 
The  very  naturalness  and  ease,  if  one  may  so 
speak,  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Bible  was 
formed,  evinces  the  work  of  a  Power  which 
had  perfect  mastery  over  the  springs  of  human 
history.  It  is  difficult  to  explain  the  progress, 
order,  and  unity  of  purpose  in  the  Bible,  unless 
we  take  into  the  account  something  more  than 
individual  genius,  national  temperament,  or 
peculiar  historical  conditions.  There  seems  to 
be  some  power  behind  all  these,  co-ordinating 
them,  arranging  and  guiding  them,  for  the 
production  of  this  organic  whole  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. There  seems  to  be  here  the  manifesta- 
tion of  some  one  directing  and  unifying  vital 
force.  There  are  peculiar  and  distinctive  fea- 
tures of  the  Bible  which  cannot  be  pressed 
without  violence  into  a  merely  naturalistic 
conception  of  its  growth.  One  is  the  progress 
of  revelation,  or  the  orderly  development  of 
doctrine,  which,  now  that  the  canon  is  com- 
pleted, can  be  seen  to  run  through  it  from  be- 
ginning to  end.  This  altogether  peculiar  and 
wonderful  feature  of  the  Bible  appears  at  a 
glance  when  we  bring  it  into  contrast  with 
other  literatures.  Our  English  literature,  for 
example,  is  the  product  of  English   history, 


THE  PROGRESS   OF  DOCTRINE.  55 

and  it  reflects,  in  each  successive  age,  the  life 
of  the  English  people.  Bat,  gather  in  one  vol- 
ume, and  in  historical  order,  the  best  poetry 
and  prose  of  England,  and,  though  we  should 
have  a  truthful  representation  of  the  changes 
of  the  national  life,  and  the  development  of 
the  national  genius,  from  the  first  spring-time 
of  Chaucer,  nevertheless,  we  should  not  have 
in  a  collection  of  that  kind  any  appearance  of 
a  definitely  ordered  and  patiently  followed 
progress  of  doctrine,  of  one  deep  plan  and  plot 
runnino;  throuojh  it  all.  The  collection  would 
be  an  anthology,  not  one  organic  whole.  It 
might  illustrate  the  development  of  the  English 
mind,  but  it  would  not  be  itself  one  progres- 
sive manifestation  of  ti-uth.  Or,  we  may  con- 
trast in  this  respect  the  Bible  with  the  Yedas. 
They,  too,  were  products  of  one  national 
genius.  They  likewise  appeared  at  different 
times,  and  are  the  work  of  many  generations 
of  poets.  They  constitute  also  a  religious  or 
sacred  literature.  But,  of  orderly  develop- 
ment, of  a  progressive  self -manifestation  of  one 
deity,  there  is  not  in  them  any  trace.  On  the 
contrary  they  run  into  confusions.  We  are 
not  led  by  them  out  into  the  clear;  we  do  not 
gain,  when  the  last  poet  has  seen  his  vision, 
any  one  exalted  conception  from  which  we  can 
survey  the  w^hole  course  of  their  revelations. 
They  lead  up  to  no  height  from  which  all  be- 


5^  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

comes  clear.  The  sacred  literature  of  the 
East  reminds  us  rather  of  an  Indian  jungle. 
It  is  luxuriant — it  abounds  in  tropical  fruits — 
but  it  is  a  pathless  confusion.  We  look  into 
our  Bible,  and  it  is  a  highway  of  the  Lord. 
The  Vedas  present  a  shifting  play  of  lights 
and  shadows;  sometimes  the  light  seems  to 
grow  brio^hter,  but  the  day  never  comes.  We 
are  left  still  to  dream.  In  the  revelations  of 
the  Bible  the  promise  grows  in  the  darkness 
until  the  shining  of  the  perfect  day.  Or,  to 
take  one  other  example,  and  that,  too,  from 
the  same  historic  soil  upon  which  the  Bible 
grew,  compare  it  with  the  Talmud.  There  is 
not  in  the  latter  anything  like  the  organic 
unity  of  the  former.  It  is  a  collection  of  wise 
sayings,  not  a  growth  of  truth  ;  a  tedious  com- 
mentary, not  an  advancing  revelation;  many 
books  of  many  scribes,  not  one  book  of  one 
mind.  We  have,  then,  in  the  progress  of  doc- 
trine in  the  Bible  a  most  striking  peculiarity 
of  it,  which  we  cannot  quietly  overlook.     Here 

k^is  an  order  or  evolution  of  truth  which  requires 
as  its  sufficient  cause  some  one  power  or  law 
of  revelation.  What  was  that  guiding  princi- 
ple, that  co-ordinating  power  of  the  Bible? 
Such  questions  press  significantly  for  an  an- 
swer when  w^e  observe  the  evidences  of  a 
higher  design  in  the  completed  Bible.     Like 

>/nature  itself,  amid  all  its  diversities,  the  Bible 


THE    UNITY  OF  DESIGN,  57 

is  one  continuous  whole,  and  one  grand  design. 
But  that  design  was  not  in  the  minds  of  the 
successive  workmen.  They  knew  not  the  per- 
fect whole  into  which  their  lives  and  work, 
as  we  now  can  see,  are  fitted.  Prophets  and 
apostles,  called  by  the  Lord  to  speak  to 
their  own  age,  little  knew  what  a  Bible  they 
were  making  for  mankind.  That  work  was 
beyond  their  ken ;  that  design  was  larger  than 
the  knowledge  of  the  ^^rj  men  who  were 
providentially  called  to  execute  it.  Our  Bible 
in  its  completeness  and  its  unity  might  be  a 
vast  surprise  to  Moses  or  Isaiah ;  and  Paul, 
and  the  last  of  the  disciples,  St.  John,  hardly 
could  have  stood  far  enough  away  from  their 
own  work  to  see  how  perfectly  it  completed 
the  whole.     This  great  design  of  the  religion 

»  t^  of  Israel  is  an  ultimate  fact  to  be  accounted 
for — a  design  which  was  ages  in  execution; 
which  was  carried  on  by  men  separated  by 
hundreds  of  years ;  which  began  in  a  word  of 
promise,  and  ended  in  a  fact  of  redemption  in 
the  fulness  of  time. 

The  following  chapters  will  lead  us  to  con- 
sider more  definitely  these  remarkable  features 
of  Revelation  as  one  great,  progressive,  histori- 
cal work.  But  the  law  of  selection  in  all  this 
marvellous  development  of  the  Bible  seems  at 
first  sight  to  be  a  higher  law.     The  Bible  and 

^^  ^  the  religion  of  the  Bible,  we  should  infer  from 

3* 


5^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

this  general  preliminary  survey  of  their  his- 
torical growth,  are  the  evolution  of  higher  than 
earthly  forces.  Those,  at  least,  who  have  eyes 
to  see  the  presence  of  God  in  history,  will 
need  nothing  more  than  tliese  significant  facts 
to  commend  to  their  reason  Bunsen's  descrip- 
tion of  the  Bible  as  "  a  book  full  of  thousands  of 
years  ;  full  of  apparent  contradictions,  as  nature 
and  man,  and  the  history  of  our  race ;  but 
always  young  and  in  itself  one  through  the 
unity  of  the  spirit  out  of  which  it  proceeded, 
even  as  the  creation  is  itself  one,  with  all  its 
oppositions,  yes,  even  through  all  its  opposi- 
tions."* We  reach  beneath  the  surface,  and 
touch  the  real  cause  of  these  remarkable  phe- 
nomena which  the  historical  growth  of  the 
Bible  presents  to  us,  when  we  lay  hold  of  the 
fact  of  a  Divine  course  or  process  of  human 
education  and  redemption.  Its  law  and  prog- 
ress  and  unity  lie  in  the  one  purpose  of  a  self- 
revealing  God.  Here,  through  transactions, 
institutions,  customs,  laws ;  in  short,  through 
the  whole  manifold  development  of  a  Divinely 
selected  national  life,  as  well  as  through  the 
sacred  literature  which  flows  out  of  that  life, 
or  carries  it  on,  we  find  the  special  presence  and 
power  of  the  self -revealing  God  of  history. 
But,  not  to  anticipate  too  much  our  conclu- 


*  Gott  in  der  Geschichte,  i.  p.  94. 


idi^rV^ 


THE  BROADER    VIEW.  59 

sion,  it  will  at  least  be  acknowledged  that  we 
have  already  gained  one  vantage-ground  in  the 
course  of  our  questioning.  If  we  should  be 
compelled  to  lose  faith  in  revelation,  we  must 
reject  it  on  broader  and  better  grounds  than 
those  familiar  to  the  common  infidel.  We 
must  be  robbed  of  faith  in  the  divineness  of 
the  whole  history  of  Israel,  before  our  Bibles 
can  cease  to  be  sacred  to  us.  He  who  has 
once  gained  this  bi'oader  view  of  the  Bible  as 
the  development  of  a  course  of  history  itself 
guided  and  inspired  by  Jehovah,  will  not  be 
disconcerted  by  the  confused  noise  of  the 
critics.  His  faith  in  the  Word  of  God  lies 
deeper  than  any  difficulties  or  flaws  upon  the 
surface  of  the  Bible.  He  will  not  be  dis- 
turbed by  seeing  any  theory  of  its  mechanical 
formation,  or  school-book  infallibility,  broken 
to  fragments  under  the  repeated  blows  of 
modern  investigation ; — the  water  of  life  will 
flow  from  the  rock  which  the  scholar  strikes 
with  his  rod.  He  can  ^vait,  without  fear,  for 
a  candid  and  thorough  study  of  these  sacred 
writings  to  determine,  if  possible,  what  parts 
are  genuine,  and  what  narratives,  if  any,  are 
unhistorical.  His  belief  in  the  Word  of  God 
from  generation  to  generation  does  not  depend 
upon  the  minor  incidents  of  the  biblical 
stories ;  it  would  not  be  destroyed  or  weak- 
ened, even  though  human  traditions  could  be 


6o  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

shown  to  have  overgrown  some  parts  of  the 
sacred  history — as  the  ivy,  creeping  up  the 
wall  of  the  church,  does  not  loosen  its  ancient 
stones.  He  can  listen  with  incurious  compla- 
cency while  small  disputants  discuss  vehe- 
mently the  story  of  the  ark,  or  Jonah's  strange 
adventure  ;  and  he  can  look  on  with  an  in- 
different smile  while  learned  magicians  attempt 
to  dissolve  the  accounts  of  Samson's  famous 
exploits  into  a  sun  myth  ; — for  is  not  Samson, 
they  ask,  a  proper  name  derived  from  a  He- 
brew word  signifying  the  sun  ?  and  in  what 
is  the  strength  of  the  sun  but  in  its  beams  ? 
and  is  not  Delilah  a  Hebrew  word  for  the 
night,  who  receives  the  sun  into  her  lap  and 
shears  him  of  his  beams  %  and,  presto !  the 
chano-e  is  wrouo^ht,  and  the  Samson  of  the 
Bible,  with  all  his  human  nature  and  mighty 
deeds,  is  transformed,  to  the  credulous  satisfac- 
tion of  the  new  masters  of  critical  legerdemain, 
into  a  primitive  myth  of  the  sun!  But  he 
who  has  once  gained  the  broader  view  and 
larger  faith,  is  above  the  din  of  the  critic's 
hammers,  and  he  is  not  to  be  troubled  hence- 
forth by  the  small  dust  of  biblical  criticism. 
If  he  ever  loses  faith  in  God's  Word,  it  must 
be  for  reasons  that  shall  blot  the  glory  of 
God  from  the  heavens,  and  make  the  light 
which  is  within  man  darkness.  The  person 
who  throws  in  our  faces  what  we  have  just 


THE  BROADER    VIEW.  6 1 

characterized  as  the  small  dust  of  biblical  criti- 
cism, and  asks  us,  what  has  become  of  the 
Word  of  God  ?  resembles  the  man  who  should 
toss  a  spadeful  of  sand,  scraped  from  the  sur- 
face of  the  rock,  into  the  air,  and  ask,  as  we 
rub  our  eyes,  what  has  become  of  the  world? 
It  is  still  beneath  us  as  of  old,  though  our  eyes 
may  be  too  full  of  dust  to  see  where  we  stand. 
After  all  the  work  of  the  critics,  the  Bible  still 
remains,  the  great,  sublime,  enduring  work  of 
the  Eternal  who  loves  righteousness  and  hates 
iniquity.  If  only,  however,  we  are  allowed  to 
plant  our  feet  quietly  on  the  everlasting  rock, 
and  are  not  compelled  by  a  mistaken  zeal  to 
keep  every  grain  of  sand — to  hold  fast  to 
any  traditions  of  men  which  may  have  accu- 
mulated upon  the  surface  of  revelation,  and 
which,  possibly,  the  rising  winds  of  controversy 
may  blow  away  ! 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    COURSE    OF   MORAL     EDUCATIOIS"    AND    PROG- 
RESS   OF    REVELATION. 

In  pursuing  this  broader  inquiry,  in  which 
revelation  is  sought  for  through  great  histori- 
cal processes,  and  in  which  our  Bible  is  regarded 
as  a  growth  slowly  matured  under  the  influence 
of  both  natural  and  supernatural  forces  and 
laws,  we  have  next  to  ask  how  the  Bible  stands 
in  relation  to  the  educational  method  and  work 
of  God  in  human  history.  Let  us  first,  how- 
ever, make  clear  this  view  of  history  with 
which  we  intend  to  brino^  the  Bible  into  com- 
parison.  This  is  all  the  more  necessary  since 
there  have  been  almost  as  many  philosophies  of 
histoiy  as  there  have  been  philosophers.  But 
their  conceptions  of  many  hues,  and  almost  end- 
less combinations,  may  be  reduced  to  three  pri- 
mary colors ;  and  to  distinguish  between  these 
will  be  sufficient  for  our  present  purpose.  Ac- 
cording to  the  first  of  these  views  nothing  is  to 
be  seen  in  history  but  the  operation  of  physical 
laws ;  and  the  philosophy  of  history  is  I'educed 
to  a  science  of  social  statistics.     Buckle,  with 


THE  POSITIVE  SCIENCE   OF  HISTORY,     6 


Lis  impatience  of  metaphysics,  and  his  fondness 
for  statistics,  was  the  readable  and  superficial 
advocate  of  this  so-called  j)ositive  science  of 
history.  But  Herbert  Spencer  is  its  profound 
student  and  great  master.  The  new  science  of 
"  Sociology "  seems  to  be  an  application  of 
ai-ithmetic  to  history.  It  treats  motives,  and 
beliefs,  and  volitions,  as  though  they  were  so 
many  quantities,  the  laws  of  whose  combina- 
tions, in  working  out  the  problems  of  human 
society,  our  philosopher  is  to  discover,  if  he 
can.  All  goes  very  well  with  our  statis- 
ticians and  social  arithmeticians,  with  their 
"  tables  "  and  "  multiplication  of  effects,"  and 
"  differentiations  "  and  ''  integrations,"  until  it 
occurs  to  us  to  ask  the  inconvenient  questions, 
"  What  do  these  formulas  represent  ?  What  are 
these  numbers  worth  ?  What  do  the  unknown 
quantities,  the  symbols  of  their  equations, 
mean  ?  "  and  then  we  must  be  put  off  with  the 
answer,  "  Oh,  science  simply  has  to  do  with  the 
succession  and  combinations  of  thinc^s,  and  has 
nothing  more  than  algebra  to  say  about  what 
things  stand  for,  or  are  worth."  But  as  men 
and  women — ^feeling,  thinking,  living,  dying — 
we  do  have  a  great  deal  of  concern  with  the 
meaning  of  things ;  and  in  our  own  personal 
consciousness  we  have  a  sense  of  being^  and  of 
moral  worth  w^ich,  to  the  generality  of  men, 
will  always  be  more  intelligible  and  important 


64  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

than  the  formal  principles  of  Mr.  Spencer's 
complete  philosophical  multiplication-table.  In 
short,  this  positive  science  of  history  seems  to 
us  to  gain  the  whole  world  and  to  lose  its  own 
soul,  and  so  to  profit  us  little.  It  seizes  the 
form,  and  misses  the  spirit  of  history.  It 
observes  the  uniformity  of  the  waves,  and  the 
regularity  in  their  rise  and  fall ;  but  it  does  not 
measure  the  tides,  and  their  higher  law.  It 
may  be  an  accurate  science  of  the  relation  and 
succession  of  social  phenomena ;  but  it  is  not  a 
philosophy  of  history,  for  it  holds  no  plummet 
by  which  to  fathom  the  deeper  currents,  and 
has  no  means  of  determining  the  destiny  toward 
which  the  life  of  man  is  swept  on. 

The  opposite  extreme  of  the  purely  idealis- 
tic philosophy  of  history  we  may  dismiss  with 
a  few  words.  Since  Kant,  idealism  has  had 
free  course  in  Germany,  and  been  glorified. 
Hegel  expanded  idealism  to  the  utmost  limits 
of  the  power  of  language  to  contain  thought ; 
and,  since  his  death,  it  has  exploded  into  we 
know  not  how  many  rarefied  philosophies, 
each  of  which  is  claimed  by  its  possessor  to 
be  the  very  idea  of  the  master.  Since  the 
general  breaking  up  of  ITegelianism  in  Ger- 
many, it  would  be  a  work  of  supererogation 
for  us  to  venture  to  condense  it  into  any  one 
intelligible  English  phrase,  or^to  burden  our 
pages  with   an  extended  notice  of  the  great 


THE  IDEAL  PHILOSOPHY  OF  HISTORY.    65 

truths,  and  greater  assumptions,  wliicli  have 
marked  the  modern  attempt  to  make  the  his- 
tory of  man  turn  itself  into  a  process  of 
thought,  and  behave  like  a  proper  Hegelian. 
We  may  gladly  avail  ourselves,  however,  of 
the  evidence  in  behalf  of  the  truth  that  there 
is  reason  in  all  things,  and  that  Spirit  is  every- 
where present  and  active,  which  is  presented 
by  the  persistent  vitality  of  idealism  in  mod- 
ern philosophy ;  though  we  may  refuse  to  en- 
tangle our  understandings  in  the  mazes  of  this 
infinite  speculation.  The  German  idealism 
has  been  a  worthy  witness  of  the  Spirit  against 
a  short-sighted  materialism  ;  but,  in  turn,  it  has 
become  a  blind  leader  of  the  blind  when  it 
has  presumed  to  find  its  way  through  nature 
and  history  by  the  inner  light  of  its  own 
thought.  If  Hegelianism  manifests  something 
of  the  faith  which  can  never  be  confounded 
when  it  regards  "  history  as  the  development 
of  Spirit  in  time,  as  Nature  is  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Idea  in  space ; "  ^  it  has,  also, 
been  put  to  shame  by  its  forgetfulness  that 
the  thoughts  of  the  Eternal  Spirit  are  not  as 
our  thoughts,  nor  his  ways  as  our  ways.  If 
idealism  has  seized  upon  the  truth,  too  often 
neglected  in  Christian  theology,  that  God  has 
been,  and  now  is,  in  the  world,  manifesting  his 


*  Hegel:  Phil,  of  Hist.  (Bohn's  Trans.),  p.  75. 


66  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

glory,  and  reconciling  it  unto  himself ;  it  has 
too  often  lost  the  other  truth,  that  he  is  also 
God  over  all  blessed  forever.  This  absolute 
idealism  ought,  it  has  been  said,''  to  be  able 
to  reveal  the  future  ;  but  it  has  not  been  able 
even  to  interpret  the  past  with  historical  truth- 
fulness by  its  logic.  Hegel's  ^-  Philosophy  of 
History"  contains  far  more  Hegelian  philos- 
oph}'-  than  human  history.  If  the  world  is  "  a 
crystallized  syllogism,"  unfortunately  for  our 
philosoi^hers  it  has  not  crystallized  always  ac- 
cording to  their  laws  of  thinking,  f  Judaism 
is  said  to  have  been  a  dark  riddle  which  tor- 
mented Hegel  all  his  life,J:  and  his  disciples 

*  Bo  wen:  Modem  Phil,  p.  362. 

f  For  the  unhistorical  distinctions  of  Hegel  with  reference  to 
the  ancient  religions,  see  Oebler,  The.  d.  A.  Test.,  i.  s.  57. 
For  his  failure  to  apprehend  the  idea  of  Christianity,  see  Dorner, 
History  of  Doctrine  of  Person  of  Christ.  Absurd  instances  of  the 
application  of  Idealism  to  natural  science  abound  in  Hegel's  wri- 
tings ;  as  for  example,  the  following:  —  ''Caustic  potash  makes 
carbonic  acid  out  of  the  air,  in  order  to  become  mild."  Natur- 
Philosophie,  §  333.  "Warmth  is  the  self-restoration  of  mat- 
ter in  its  formlessness,  its  fluidity,  the  triumph  of  its  homoge- 
neity, etc.,"  Ency.,  §  303.  "  There  is  a  darkness  existing  for 
itself,  and  a  light  existing  for  itself,  and  by  mediation  of  trans- 
parency in  its  .  .  .  unity  is  the  appearance  of  color."  Ibid,, 
p.  280.  Hegel  calls  the  Newtonic  theory,  that  white  light  con- 
sists of  the  union  of  seven  colors,  "a  barbarism  over  which  cno 
cannot  express  himself  too  strongly,  .  .  as  though,"  he  says, 
"  a  pure  stream  of  water  could  oiiginate  from  seven  kinds  of 
earth."  Ibid.,  p.  285.  The  immanent  dialectic  of  light  passing 
back  and  forth,  through  the  colors  of  the  rainbow,  in  and  out 
of  its  opposite,  darkness,  is  prodigious !  But  let  these  few  ex- 
amples of  idealistic  science  suffice  for  many. 

X  Rosenkranz:   Biog.  Hegel's,  s.  40, 


THE   THEOLOGY  OF  HISTORY.  67 

of  the  Tlibinoren  school  have  mistaken  a  mi- 

o 

rage  for  the  reality  of  jDrimitive  Christianity. 
They  point  to  an  airy  inversion  of  the  sub- 
stantial facts  with  which  a  sober  criticism  is 
acquainted. 

With  this  passing  notice  of  these  two  ex- 
treme conceptions  of  history,  the  positive  and 
the  idealistic,  we  hasten  to  the  statement  of 
the  third  view  with  which  our  reasoning  in 
reheard  to  Revelation  is  concerned,  and  which 
we  may  describe  as  the  conception  of  a  provi- 
dential development  of  history.*  Its  law  of 
progress  is  a  divine  purpose,  and  its  goal  is 
the  greatest  possible  moral  good.  Its  devel- 
opment is  not  that  of  an  abstract  Idea,  or  a 
World-spirit,  or  the  blind  working  of  imper- 
sonal laws ;  but  man  is  taken  up  in  the  pur- 
pose of  a  higher  Being,  and  human  history, 
with  all  its  lights  and  shadows,  with  all  its 
eddies  and  retrogressions,  is  the  progress  of  a 
divine  purpose,  whose  end  is  the  greatest  pos- 
sible good.  This  view  recognizes  a  power  in 
human  affairs  that  ''  makes  for  righteousness," 
and  makes  for  it  likewise  with  apparent  fore- 
thought, and  intelligently. 

This   conception    may  be   thought   out   in 

*  That  development  does  not  exclude  providence,  but  is  a  com- 
plex adjustment  of  forces  which  requires  purpose,  M.  Janet  has 
maintained  conclusively  in  his  recent  book  on  "Final  Causes," 
against  a  prevalent  unphilosophical  tendency  to  dismiss  super- 
ciliously the  old  argument  from  design. 


6S 


OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 


several  different  ways,  but  it  implies  belief  in 
a  moral  order  in  history,  and  in  One  whose 
orderings  are  everywhere  to  be  sought  for  and 
followed.  It  is,  in  its  best  statement,  that 
Christian  philosophy  of  history  as  the  coming 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  to  which,  alike  from 
the  abstractions  of  thoucrht  and  the  necessities 
of  daily  life,  the  hearts  of  men  are  always  re- 
turning. It  is,  in  short,  a  theology  of  history 
as  well  as  a  philosophy  of  history. 

Lessing  first  threw  into  modern  theology 
the  fruitful  idea  that  revelation  itself  may  be 
conceived  of  as  a  divine  education  of  the  race. 
Lessing's  conception,  when  taken  up  by  theol- 
ogy, and  set  in  the  light  of  a  clearer  faith  than 
Lessing  found  in  the  Orthodoxism  of  his  day, 
gives  us  a  view  of  history  which  seems  to  be 
both  simple  and  comprehensive,  both  true  to 
the  facts  and  to  the  spirit  which  is  in  man. 
The  Christian  philosophy  of  history  as  the 
carrying  on  and  out  of  a  great  divine  work  of 
human  education  and  redemption  unites  in  its 
comprehension  the  statistics  and  the  ideas ; 
the  necessary  laws  of  human  development,  and 
the  freedom  of  the  spirit ;  the  order  of  nature 
and  the  operation  of  supersensible  powers. 
There  is  no  need,  however,  for  us  to  pause  in 
order  to  array  at  this  point  arguments  and 
facts  in  support  of  this  conception  of  the  moral 
ordering  of  history,  as  the  evidences  of  it  will 


THE  MORAL    TEST  OF  REVELATION.      69 

be  involved  in  our  whole  reasoning — the  light 
of  it  plays  in  and  out  through  all  our  thinking  ; 
and  if  our  subsequent  positions  be  admitted, 
the  correctness  of  the  moral  and  theistic  begin- 
nings of  our  argument  will  need  no  other  proof. 

We  proceed,  then,  to  examine  our  Bible 
further  under  this  conception  of  the  moral  de- 
velopment of  human  history,  and  the  Divine 
education  of  man.  If  a  revelation  really  comes 
from  the  moral  Orderer  of  the  world,  it  must 
flow  with  his  purpose.  It  must  be  a  part 
of  his  order,  it  must  carry  out  his  method 
and  work.  The  supreme  moral  test  of  the 
Bible  therefore,  is,  Does  it  flow  with  and  in- 
crease this  diviner  current  of  history  ?  Did  it, 
as  it  first  welled  up  and  began  to  flow  in  Israel, 
does  it  now,  in  the  fulness  of  its  power,  run 
into  and  sweep  on  with  the  deepening  right- 
eousness, the  enlarging  truth  of  history  ?  We 
have,  in  short,  to  do  with  a  question  of  the 
whole  moral  tendency  and  educational  work  of 
the  Bible. 

In  putting  the  Bible  to  this  moral  test  no 
artifices  of  interpretation,  or  trifling  with  the 
moral  sentiments  should  be  tolerated.  Man's 
conscience  and  its  education  through  centuries 
of  history  are  the  work  of  God,  or  nothing  is. 
Man's  moral  sentiments,  and  their  growth, 
come  from  the  Father  of  lights,  or  all  is  dark- 
ness.    If  the  light  which  is  within  us  be  dark- 


70  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

ness,  no  revelation  would  be  of  any  avfiil  to 
lis.  When  Jesus  said,  Every  one  that  is  of 
the  truth  heareth  my  voice,  he  declared  unequi- 
vocally that  the  sense  of  moral  truth  withiu 
man  is  the  final  test  of  revelation.  But,  admit- 
tino^  this,  how  does  the  matter  stand  between 
the  Scriptures  of  Israel,  and  the  conscience  of 
to-day  ? 

The  case  seems,  certainly,  to  stand  very 
poorly  for  the  Bible,  if  the  Bible  is  to  be  de- 
fended as  an  infallible  treatise  of  morals  and 
divinity,  of  equal  inspiration  and  authority 
thi-oughout,  finished  and  accurate  in  every 
sentence  and  part.  There  are  passages  of 
Scripture  which  an  enlightened  Christian  con- 
science is  far  beyond.  There  are  rules  which 
•it  would  be  bondagje  for  us  to  observe.  A 
man  who  should  attempt  to  regulate  his  social 
life  by  the  laws  of  Moses  would  be  sent  to  the 
penitentiary.  A  person  who  should  adopt,  as 
the  professed  creed  of  his  life,  the  wisdom  of 
Solomon,  might  knock  in  vain  for  admission 
at  the  doors  of  an  Evang^elical  church.  But 
the  Bible  is  not  the  Koran,  and  we  are  not 
called  upon  to  tear  revelation  from  its  histori- 
cal surroundings,  and  to  treat  it  as  a  creation 
of  God  independent  of  all  the  other  works  of 
God  from  a2:e  to  ac(e.  As  the  sun  and  the 
solar  system  are  supposed  to  have  come  forth 
together  out  of  the  original  nebula — the  same 


THE  MORAL    TEST  OF  REVELATION.      7 1 

primal  force  evolving  both  simultaneously  and 
harmoniously,  the  consolidation  of  the  earth 
proceeding  as  the  cloud-light  of  space  was 
condensed  into  the  orb  of  day,  all  things  in 
the  creation  keeping  perfect  time  in  the  great 
march  onward,  so  that,  at  length,  when  a  world 
ready  for  the  life  of  man  was  gained,  there 
rose  above  it,  in  its  clear  sky,  a  sun  to  rule  the 
day, — so  was  it  with  the  progress  of  revelation 
and  history.  They  were  developed  together, 
and  in  harmony,  and  by  the  same  Divine  Prov- 
idence. The  advance  of  the  one  keeps  time 
with  the  progress  of  the  other.  The  light 
brightens  as  the  world  is  prepared  for  its 
shining.  The  sun  of  to-day  might  not  have 
done  for  the  atmosphere  of  the  carboniferous 
a<2:e.  Oar  lio'ht  would  have  been  out  of  season 
in  patriarchal  times.  The  sun  was  once  hardly 
distinguished  from  the  earth,  and  it  wrapt  the 
whole  orbit  of  our  planet  in  its  strange,  dif- 
fused light  before  ever  the  two  were  divided, 
and  the  sun  rose  clear  above  the  earth's  horizon 
as  the  one  dazzling  orb.  Revelation  and  human 
life  seem,  in  the  dim  dawn  of  history,  to  have 
been  strangely  blended,  and  it  is  hard  to  sepa- 
I'ate  the  awakening  human  soul  from  the 
Divine  manifestation  in  which  man  first  came 
to  himself,  and  which  threw  ever  around  the 
childhood  of  humanity  a  strange  glamour,  and 
to  us  unnatural  lisfht :  not  until  centuries  had 


72  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

passed  did  the  growing  revelation  clear  itself  of 
the  earthly,  and,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  con- 
centrating its  beams  in  one  perfect  manifesta- 
tion of  God,  become  henceforth,  in  the  iirma^ 
ment  of  the  world's  faith,  the  true  Light  which 
lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the 
world. 

The  case,  then,  stands  very  differently  with 
our  Bible  the  moment  we  place  before  our 
minds  this  conception  of  the  intelligent  co- 
ordination and  simultaneous  development  of 
the  world's  Bible,  and  the  world's  history,  the 
iiual  result  of  which  is  a  finished  revelation 
and  a  Christian  era.  Before  we  can  bring  any 
part  or  precept  of  the  Bible  under  the  condem- 
nation of  conscience,  we  shall  have  to  settle 
this  larger  question — whether  there  has  been  a 
course  of  human  education  and  progress  of 
doctrine  in  the  Bible  wisely  arranged  and  pa- 
tiently carried  out ;  whether,  indeed,  our  Bible 
bears  witness  to  a  special  education  of  man 
according  to  a  good  purpose  by  the  Spirit  of 
God. 

We  shall  notice,  first,  some  general  indica- 
tions of  this  educational  character  of  revela- 
tion, and  then  call  attention  to  some  particular 
illustrations  and  confirmations  of  it. 

First,  the  general  formative  truths  of  the 
Old  Testament  were  progressive  forces  in  early 
history.     They  were  necessary  to  progress,  and 


REVELATION  A   PROGRESSIVE  FORCE.     73 

they  pressed  man  on.  Revelation  forbade  man 
to  look  back,  by  its  threatenings,  and  led  man 
on,  going  before  him  as  the  angel  of  the  Lord, 
with  its  promise.  The  Old  Testament  repeat- 
edly threw  into  human  affairs  just  those 
truths  which  man  needed  to  make  him  move 
on — to  keep  him  from  falling  hopelessly  back. 
Consider,  for  example,  the  moral  effect  in 
early  ages  of  that  account  of  the  creation  pre- 
served, and  evidently  arranged  in  a  form  con- 
venient to  be  committed  to  memory,  in  the  first 
chapter  of  the  book  of  Genesis.  Whatever 
may  be  its  present  scientific  value — and  we 
shall  seek  to  estimate  further  on  its  worth  as  a 
contribution  to  scientific  progress — no  student 
of  the  history  of  nations  can  entertain  any 
doubt  of  its  moral  value,  its  inestimable  ser- 
vice, that  is,  to  the  moral  progress  of  mankind. 
"We  could  more  easily,  indeed,  compute  how 
much  a  pure  spring  welling  up  at  the  source 
of  a  brook  that  widens  into  a  river,  has  done 
for  meadow,  and  grass,  and  flowers,  and  over- 
hanging trees,  for  thousands  of  years,  than 
estimate  the  influence  of  that  purest  of  all 
ancient  traditions  of  the  creation,  as  it  has 
entered  into  the  lives  and  revived  the  con- 
sciences of  men ;  as  it  has  purified  countries  of 
idolatries,  and  swept  away  superstitions  ;  as  it 
has  flowed  on  and  on  with  the  increasing  truth 
of  history,  and  kept  fresh  and  fruitful,  from 
4 


74  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

generation  to  generation,  faith  in  the  One  God 
and  the  common  parentage  of  man.  A 
primitive  and  pure  Hebrew  tradition  of  the 
'  creation  was  probably  one  of  the  impulses  of 
the  first  great  religious  reformation  in  the 
patriarchal  age.  The  truth  witnessed  by  it 
was  enough  to  make  Abraham  a  reformer. 
With  some  spiritual  song  of  the  creation  in  his 
heart  he  could  not  join  in  the  idolatries  of  his 
neighbors,  and  he  seeks  another  country.  The 
Chaldean  Genesis,  which  has  been  partially 
deciphered  from  the  broken  tablets  of  tlie 
royal  library  at  Nineveh,  though  corresponding 
in  some  interesting  particulars  with  the  bibli- 
cal narrative,  lacked  precisely  this  moral 
worth,  and  reformatory  power.  These  tradi- 
tions of  the  creation  never  became  powers  of 
a  growing  religious  history.  They  are  like 
stagnant  pools  of  water,  themselves  choked 
w^ith  corruptions — not  flowing  fountains  of 
life.  They  did  not  stir  and  cleanse  the  moral 
stagnation  of  Babylon.  The  vital  power  of 
truth  to  create  a  purer  and  growing  life  is  the 
characteristic  virtue  of  the  very  first  words 
of  inspiration.  A  thoughtful  man,  w^tli  tlie 
biblical  truth  of  the  Creator  working^  as  a 
moral  force  in  his  soul,  became  the  father  of  a 
nation  whose  end  is  not  yet.  It  is  not  an  un- 
reasonable, but  a  very  probaljle,  conjecture  that 
the  children  of  Israel,  during  their  bondage  in 


REVELATION  A   PROGRESSIVE  FORCE.     75 

Egypt,  preserved  their  ancestral  tradition  of 
the  creation,  and  had  in  it  a  bond  of  religious 
faith,  never  wholly  broken,  to  keep  them  as 
one  people  for  the  time  of  their  exodus.  The 
truth  with  which  our  Bible  begins  may  have 
been  one  of  the  truths  which  prepared  Moses, 
during  his  exile  with  the  priest  of  Midian,  to 
come  forth  as  the  deliverer  and  lawgiver  of 
his  people ;  the  grand  faith  that  God  made 
the  heavens  and  the  earth  becoming  thus  a 
second  time  a  source  and  impulse  of  a  great 
religious  and  national  movement.  But  how 
shall  we  trace  through  the  history  of  Israel 
the  inestimable  influence  of  that  primeval 
revelation  ?  On  and  on  through  the  Hebrew 
life  and  literature  those  pure  truths  of  the 
creation  flow,  and  mingle  with  the  deepest  and 
best  currents  of  the  national  life  and  thought ; 
and  if  we,  to-day,  would  follow  the  lifegiving 
stream  of  Divine  influence  backward  and  up- 
ward through  history  to  its  earliest  sources,  we 
shall  pass  beyond  the  broad  and  fruitful  teach- 
ings of  Christianity,  beyond  the  grand  reaches 
of  prophecy,  up  through  the  stern  command- 
ments of  the  law,  to  this  first  clear  spring  and 
earliest  fountain  of  revelation — In  the  beo-in- 
ning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth. 

Thus  it  may  be  shown  that  other  leading 
ideas,  or  great  formative  truths,  of  the  Old 
Testament,  move  on  always  in  accordance  with 


70  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

the  moral  order,  along  the  deeper  moral  grooves 
of  history.  The  moral  tendency  of  the  Bible, 
in  general,  works  together  with  the  moral 
gravitation  of  things,  for  righteousness  and 
against  iniquity. 

Secondly,  these  Scriptures,  one  after  an- 
other, seem  to  have  been  thrown  into  the 
course  of  the  moral  education  of  the  world 
when  they  were  needed.  They  came  not  too 
soon  or  too  late.  When  the  age  needed  the 
lesson,  the  schoolmaster  stood  before  it,  sent 
from  God  to  teach  it.  Revelation  in  this 
manner  led  step  by  step,  and  age  after  age,  the 
moral  progress  of  man.  The  Bible  kept  ever 
just  ahead  of  the  times,  and  so  was  fitted  to 
bear  the  part  of  moral  leadership  in  history. 
At  no  one  time  was  its  word  of  prophecy  too 
far  advanced  for  the  people  to  follow  it,  if 
they  would;  at  all  times  its  message  pressed 
events  on  toward  the  better  day.  The  mes- 
sengers of  revelation  were  of  the  people,  lim- 
ited by  their  conditions,  and  bound  under  the 
burdens  of  their  own  generation;  each  was 
called  to  wrestle  with  the  questions  of  his  own 
times.  But  truths  from  God,  stirring  in  the 
heart  of  their  age,  broke  forth  in  their  inspired 
speech,  and  visions  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
made  them  leaders  and  reformers.  This  con- 
tinuous and  unmistakable  moral  leadership  of 
the    Bible,    so    singularly    perpetuated   from 


MORAL  LEADERSHIP  OF  THE  BIBLE.        77 

prophet  to  prophet,  and  running,  like  one  in- 
spiration, through  many  generations,  is  itself 
a  sign  of  God's  work,  and  an  indication  that 
we  are  followins:  here  the  course  of  a  revela- 
tion.  Observe  how  orderly  and  progressive 
this  raoral  leadership  of  history  by  the  God  of 
the  Bible  is.  We  seem  to  be  followins^  alonsc 
this  history  a  sagacious  and  indomitable  work 
of  moral  engineering,  —  over  mountains  and 
across  valleys,  to  use  again  the  vivid  prophetic 
description  of  its  progress,  there  is  made 
straight  a  highway  for  the  Lord.  Fix  in  mind 
the  great  epochs — the  Reformation  of  the  patri- 
archal age,  the  Exodus,  the  Monarchy,  the 
Exile,  the  Return,  the  Interval — and  around 
these  periods  gather  in  their  order  the  literary 
products  of  the  life  of  Israel — prophecj",  and 
history,  and  proverb,  and  psalm, — and  the 
moral  purpose  and  progress,  the  providential 
design  and  leadership  through  it  all  will  be- 
come at  once  self-revealed  and  obvious,  as  the 
meaning  of  some  great  picture,  with  its  lights 
and  shades,  and  convergence  of  lines  in  one 
perspective  and  toward  one  point  of  sight. 
Read  the  Bible  as  our  modern  discoverers  of 
the  mistakes  of  Moses  read  it,  without  taking 
in  its  historical  perspective;  look  upon  the 
biblical  revelation  as  a  plain  surface  mthout 
depth  and  distance, — and  you  cannot  possibly 
gain  a  much  truer  conception  of  the  divine 


r 


78  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

wisdom  in  it,  tlian  you  could  of  the  glory  of 
God  in  the  heavens,  if  you  should  regard  the 
sky  as  a  flat  surface  in  which  the  stars  ai-e 
fixed,  forgetting  the  vast  astronomical  dis- 
tances, and  the  groupings  of  worlds,  and  the 
harmony  of  all.  The  unhistorical  interpreta- 
tion of  Scripture  is  as  childish  as  an  un astro- 
nomical view  of  the  sky.  We  must  endeavor 
to  see  things  as  they  are,  not  as  they  appear, 
if  we  would  discover  the  higher  thought,  the 
divine  law,  in  their  arrangement.  Follow, 
then,  through  the  Bible  the  continuous  adjust- 
ment of  the  revelation  of  truth  to  the  condi- 
tions of  the  life  of  Israel — and  in  this  adapta- 
tion of  the  environment  of  revealed  truth  to 
the  struirorle  of  the  liio!;her  life  in  Israel,  there 
lie  the  evidences  of  a  more  than  natural  evolu- 
tion. The  Bible,  when  interpreted  with  any 
adequate  historical  sense,  shows  throughout 
imbroken  moral  leadership.  Its  truths  meet 
the  exigencies  of  its  epochs,  and  lead  on  into 
new  eras,  toward  the  one  far-oif  Messianic 
goal.  Thus  (for  we  can  now  only  glance 
down  the  course  of  development)  Abraham 
receives  the  word  of  the  Lord  which  enables 
him  to  open  the  way  of  reform,  and  to  become 
the  father  of  a  monotheistic  nation.  Moses, 
with  the  commandments  of  the  Lord,  leads  a 
chosen  people  one  great  step  onward  toward 
the   land    of   promise.     Samuel    receives   the 


MORAL  LEADERSHIP  OF  THE  BIBLE.        79 

trutli  by  whose  power  lie  leads  the  twelve 
tribes  out  of  political  chaos.  David  leads  the 
kingdom  to  a  throne  established  in  righteous- 
ness ;  and  the  older  prophets  come  with  the 
word  of  the  Lord  which  kinoes  must  hear. 
Isaiah,  and  the  younger  prophets,  lead  religion 
through  the  deadly  tangle  of  Canaanitish 
idolatries,  over  the  arid  wastes  of  formalism, 
beyond  the  rocky  fastnesses  of  Judaism,  to 
the  living  fountains  of  a  spiritual  worship, 
and  into  the  illimitable  prospect  of  the  Messi- 
anic glory.  The  nation,  in  order  to  learn  its 
truths  by  heart,  is  sent  into  exile,  "  goes  into 
retreat  to  do  penance  for  its  sins."  It  is 
called  back,  sobered  and  purified  from  idola- 
try, to  enter  upon  the  Puritanism  of  the  Jew- 
ish Church,  which  also  must  precede  the  vic- 
tory of  faith,  and  its  final  Christian  liberty. 
Again  revelation  proves  true  to  its  mission, 
and  leads  the  history.  In  the  later  Hebrew 
writings,  which  have  found  a  place  in  our 
Bibles,  the  truth  of  the  individual,  and  his  re- 
sponsibility, sounds  forth.  Jeremiah  struck 
this  new  note;  it  rings  through  Ezekiel;  it 
calls,  like  a  trumpet,  to  courage  and  con- 
science, and  the  hope  of  immortality,  in  the 
book  of  Daniel.  There  follows  an  age  when 
the  voice  of  the  prophet  ceases.  The  drill  of 
the  schoolmaster  has  its  appointed  time.  The 
hedge  is  built  around  the  law.     The  heroic 


8o  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

warrior  recovers  the  sacred  rolls  wliicli  the 
"Madman  of  Syria"  had  left  unburned.  The 
scribe  sits  in  Moses'  seat.  Already  the  soil 
is  prepared  by  the  Roman  ploughshares  for 
the  seeds  of  a  better  faith.  But  the  life  of 
the  true  religion  must  first,  it  would  seem, 
return  into  itself,  become  dry  in  the  hard  ker- 
nel of  Judaism,  be  buried  in  the  gj-ound,  and 
die,  before  it  can  rise  again  in  the  new  vigor 
of  Christianity,  and  bear  the  ripe  fruit  of  the 
Gospel  for  the  world.  At  last  the  greatest 
of  the  prophets  points  to  One  greater  than 
he,  in  whom  all  is  fulfilled,  and  in  his  disci- 
ples the  true  Israel  is  sent  at  last  as  a  "  na- 
tion of  teachers  "  through  the  world. 

Thus,  moral  leadership,  kept  up  through  a 
succession  of  centuries,  and  toward  a  Messianic 
goal,  is  the  peculiar  divinity  of  the  Bible  and 
the  religion  of  the  Bible.  Rightly  to  appreci- 
ate what  divine  Power,  standing  as  it  were 
behind  history,  ever  pressed  Israel  on,  and 
often  ao^ainst  its  own  stubborn  will,  to  the 
moral  leadership  of  the  world — what  higher 
forces  were  ever  at  work  in  and  through  the 
Bible,  we  need  to  leave  our  own  position  amid 
the  worked-out  results  of  revelation,  and  we 
should  divest  ourselves  of  our  Christian  asso- 
ciations, which  are  the  results  of  the  whole 
educational  work  of  God  in  history ;  we  must 
enter  into  the  moral  ignorance,  the  supersti- 


THE  ANTI-HISTORIC  POWER  IN  ISRAEL.   8  I 

tions,  the  cruelties,  the  thick  darkness  and 
sin,  from  out  which  revelation  emerged ;  we 
must  take  our  stand  before  the  micrht  of 
evil,  and  hear  the  noise  of  the  battle,  and  be- 
hold the  powers  of  darkness  rising  up  every- 
where against  this  great  march  forward. 
Whence,  then,  we  may  well  ask,  came  that 
Spirit  which  wrestled  with  Israel  and  pre- 
vailed ?  "What  earthly  science  shall  name  this 
unknown  Power  which  conquers  and  reigns? 
Keen  observers  have  noticed  the  existence  of 
what  they  call  an  anti-Darwinian  conscience  in 
man.  There  is  an  invisible  something  in  man 
which  often  sets  at  defiance,  and  prevails  over, 
the  inherited  tendencies  of  human  nature,  and 
which  does  not  always  give  the  battle  to  the 
strong.  Whence  came,  and  of  what  manner 
of  spirit  is,  this  anti-historic  power  in  Israel 
and  the  Bible  ?  Some  inner  principle  of  de- 
velopment struggles  against  the  outward  his- 
torical environment,  and  will  not  rest  until  it 
prevails.  What  was  it  which  selected  Israel, 
and  in  one  narrow  land,  while  all  the  sur- 
rounding country  was  sinking,  lifted  man  up 
in  spite  of  himself  ?  which  along  the  course  of 
one  national  history  carried  on  a  progressive 
development  of  religious  life  and  truth,  while 
other  people,  though  taught  by  many  wise 
men  and  seers,  and  not  without  their  truths, 
still  can  show  no  one  connected  and  progressive 
4* 


82  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

revelation  like  this  ?  At  all  events,  here  are 
phenomena  to  be  taken  carefully  into  the  ac- 
count in  any  fair  estimate  of  the  moral  nature 
of  the  Bible.  Bat  let  us  consider  these  gen- 
eral phenomena  more  in  detail.  Certain  spe- 
cial characteristics  which  indicate  one  educa- 
tional plan,  and  which  suggest  the  superintend- 
ence of  one  mind  throughout  the  whole  course, 
remain  to  be  noticed. 

1.  There  is  a  plain  progress  of  doctrine 
in  the  Bible  from  without  inward,  from  ex- 
ternal restraints  to  inward  principles,  from 
law  to  love.  The  object-lesson  is  given 
first,  the  truth  of  the  spirit  afterward.  The 
discipline  of  conduct  precedes  the  renewal  of 
the  heart.  The  sign  and  symbol  prepare  for 
the  essential  and  the  real.  God's  method  in 
the  Bible  is  like  the  mother's  method  with  her 
child.  The  best  truths  of  the  home  are  the 
last  learned.  Those  things  which  are  out- 
ward, temporary,  and  of  least  worth,  are  the 
first  gifts  and  earliest  lessons  of  the  home.  Its 
higher  spiritual  blessings,  its  real  wealth  of 
love,  lying  from  the  beginning  in  all  the  care  of 
the  home,  cannot  be  opened  to  the  child  until 
after  many  days ;  they  are  the  memories  of  the 
home  which  men  cherish  by  the  graves  of  those 
who  bore  them.  God's  method  of  revelation, 
like  the  course  of  human  education,  begins,  of 
itfecessity,  with  outward  regulations,  and  provi- 


PROGRESSIVE  METHOD  OF  REVELATION.   83 

sions  for  the  day ;  it  proceeds  by  the  lessons  of 
tutors  and  governors,  and  ends  with  the  free- 
dom and  love  of  the  new  heart.  This  progres- 
sive method  is  to  be  observed  in  the  manner 
of  revelation,  or  in  the  means  employed  by 
God  for  the  purpose  of  manifesting  himself. 
The  earlier  means  of  divine  manifestation 
were  the  appearances  of  angels,  the  voice,  and 
vision  of  the  night,  the  Shekinah  of  the  sanctu- 
ary, and,  in  general,  supernatural  signs  and 
works.  The  conception  of  the  presence  and 
power  in  Israel  of  the  Holy  Spirit  grew  up 
slowly,  and  required  times  of  trouble  and  ex- 
ile for  its  development.*  Even  the  word  "  con- 
science," without  which  we  can  hardly  conceive 
of  any  religion,  and  through  which  revelation 
shines  upon  our  hearts,  is  not  to  be  met  with 
in  the  earlier  books  of  the  Bible.  A  trace  of 
it  is  to  be  found  in  Ecclesiastes,f  but  not  un- 
til the  deep  religious  experience  of  the  apostle 
Paul  did  it  become  a  customary  Scriptural  ex- 
pression. Its  use  marks  a  late,  developed, 
Christian  idea  of  individual  responsibility,  and 
the  indwelling  law  of  the  Spirit. 

The  educational  work  of  the  Mosaic  ritual, 
the  plain  pedagogical  intent  of  the  law,  will 
at  once  occur  as  an  example  of  this  method  of 
revelation.    Working  from  within  outward,  its 

*  Compare  Ewald ,  Lehre  d.  Bible  von  Gott. ,  i.  293. 
t  Chap.  X.  20  ;  Ewald  :  Ibid.,  i.  35. 


§4  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

object  and  intent,  as  has  often  enongli  been 
pointed  out,  was  "  to  prepare  and  awaken  tlie 
inward  spiritual  life,  the  inner  consciousness 
of  God."*  It  will  be  only  necessary  for  us, 
therefore,  to  call  attention  to  some  illustrations 
of  this  work  of  the  schoolmaster  performed 
by  the  law  which  are  not  so  familiar,  or 
Avhich  need  nowadays  to  be  emphasized. 

From  this  educational  point  of  view  we  are 
to  judge  rightly  the  vows  enjoined  or  permitted 
by  the  Old  Testament.  Vows  mark  a  lower 
and  more  external  stage  of  religious  progress, 
and  they  were  permitted  by  the  God  of  the 
Bible  as  useful  in  the  earlier  periods  of  reli- 
gious growth.  We  feel  that  the  great  apostle 
acted  in  a  spirit  of  accommodation  to  an  out- 
grown Jewish  scruple  when  he  took  upon  him- 
self a  vow  in  the  temple.  Vows  disappear 
with  other  '^  beggarly  elements  "  of  this  world 
from  the  later  revelations  of  the  Spirit.  Re- 
ligious and  moral  vows,  as  total  abstinence 
pledges,  are  pre-Christian  morals.  They  may 
still  be  necessary  for  persons  who  in  their 
moral  development  belong  to  the  ages  before 
Christ,  and  who  cannot  be  constrained  by  the 
law  of  the  spirit.  They  may  still  be  useful^ 
at  times,  in  view  of  the  necessities  of  the 
weaker  brethren.     But  they  possess  no  virtue 


*  Oehler;  The.  des  A.  T.,  i.,  s.  460. 


PREPARA  TOR  Y  LAW  OF  THE  SABS  A  TH.      8  5 

or  sanctity  in  themselves ;  as  even  in  Deuter- 
onomy we  read  :  "  But  if  thou  shalt  forbear  to 
vow,  it  shall  be  no  sin  in  thee  "  (Deut.  xxiii. 
22),  and  they  have  no  proper  place  in  the  cove- 
nant of  the  Christian  Church. 

The  same  pedagogical  intent  of  the  law,  in 
leading  men  from  the  negative  and  outward 
morality  to  the  inward  and  positive  virtue,  is 
very  marked  in  the  successive  precepts  concern- 
ing an  institution  which,  because  it  is  often  so 
misunderstood,  deserves,  in  this  connection, 
special  notice.  We  cannot  maintain  the  per- 
petual obligation  of  the  Sabbath  unless  we 
observe  carefully  the  preparatory  and  educa- 
tional intent  of  the  fourth  commandment. 
The  original  commandment  is  mainly  negative. 
"  Thou  shalt  not  do  any  work."  The  first  ob- 
ject of  the  commandment  is  to  gain  control  of 
the  conduct,  the  work  of  the  hands.  It  intro- 
duces a  restraint  rather  than  a  privilege. 
The  privilege,  however,  lies  at  the  core  of  the 
restraint,  waitino^  to  be  brouo-ht  out.  The 
Sabbath  precepts,  and  indeed  the  whole  ritual 
of  the  prophets,  look  forward  to  a  more  spir- 
itual worship,  and  the  better  consecration  of 
the  seventh  day  ;  and  the  Sabbath  waits  for 
its  Lord.  His  word — "  The  Sabbath  was  made 
for  man  " — finally  makes  the  glorious  Christian 
privilege  break  loose  from  the  restraints  of  the 
law.     The  Jewish  traditions  had  checked  this 


86  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

blossoming  forth  of  tlie  law.  The  precepts  of 
the  synagogues,  which  had  been  formed  be- 
tween the  times  of  Ezra  and  Christ,  were  so 
many  attempts  of  mistaken  zeal  to  bind  up 
and  stay  the  development  of  the  blessing  in- 
tended for  man  in  the  Sabbath  day ;  and  Christ 
took  them  all  away.  So  the  Jewish  Sabbath 
passes  naturally,  and  in  accordance  with  the 
divine  law  of  the  development  of  revelation, 
into  the  Lord's  day  ;  and  the  end  is  better 
than  the  beginning.  We  may  not,  as  Chris- 
tians, confine  the  sacred  V^lessing  and  joy  of 
the  Lord's  day  within  the  earlier  and  narrow 
Sabbath  of  the  commandment.  That  would 
be  a  Judaizing  which  gendereth  bondage.  In 
the  joyous  worship  of  the  first  Christians  the 
Sabbath  idea  began  to  be  fulfilled.  Ko 
longer  a  day  of  burdensome  restraint,  and 
more  than  a  day  of  rest,  the  Sabbath,  in  the 
Christian  observance  of  the  Lord's  day,  be- 
came indeed  a  day  made  for  man,  a  day  sacred 
to  the  highest  and  best  communion  with  God, 
a  blessing  of  the  SjDirit  for  mankind.  The 
older  SablDath,  lingering  for  a  season  in  Chris- 
tian usage  beside  the  Lord's  day,  like  a  shadow 
by  the  substance,  at  last,  in  the  more  per- 
fect day,  disappeared,  while  that  which,  as 
the  apostle  said,  is  more  glorious,  remains. 
Not  by  returning,  therefore,  to  the  law  of 
ordinances,  as  we  are  sometimes  ill-advisedly 


PREPARA  TOR  Y  LAW  OF  THE  SABBA  TH.     8  7 

urged  to  do,  but  rather  by  following  up  the 
advancing  purpose  and  process  of  revelation, 
until  it  gives  man  a  Sabbath  in  its  full  idea 
and  pei-fection,  are  we  to  justify,  without  arti- 
fice of  interpretation,  the  present  and  perpet- 
ual oblio^ation  of  the  Christian  Sabbath.  The 
divine  principle  of  the  deA'elopment  of  revela- 
tion is  our  only  and  our  sufiicient  reason  for 
the  change  to  the  first  day  of  the  week.  The 
divine  sanctions  of  a  finished  revelation  invest 
the  Christian  Sabbath.  Not  to  avail  ourselves 
of  its  blessino'  is  worse  than  to  break  a  com- 
mandment.  It  is  to  neglect  the  Christian 
conclusion  of  the  whole  educational  course 
of  the  law,  and  to  profane  a  perfect  gift  of 
God  to  man.* 

2.  The  educational  progress,  or  pedagogical 
intent  of  the  Bible,  may  also  be  characterized 
as  an  advance  from  the  general  to  the  specific ; 
from  the  indefinite  to  the  more  definite.  The 
lessons  in  coarse  print  come  first ;  the  fine 
print  is  learned  afterwards.  The  general 
principle  or  rule  is  given  first;  the  teaching 

*  The  second  commandment,  also,  has  passed  through  a  notable 
change.  Mozley  (Ruling  Ideas,  Lecture  III.)  shows  that  the  idea 
natural  to  the  Jewish  mind  in  the  times  of  Moses,  of  a  judicial 
visitation  of  the  stus  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,  began  to 
be  superseded  by  a  different  view  as  early  even  as  the  age  of 
Ezekiel,  and  in  Christian  theology  has  passed  into  the  conception 
of  a  law  of  natural  providence.  We  have  here  another  instance 
of  the  principle  of  development  of  revelation,  by  which  that 
which  is  imperfect  is  gradually  done  away. 


88  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

of  subsequent  experience  brings  out  its  more 
spiritual  meanings,  or  its  more  difficult  appli- 
cations. The  progress  of  the  revelation  of  the 
nature  and  perfection  of  the  Godhead  is  a  sig- 
nal illustration  of  this  feature  of  the  historical 
course  of  revelation.  This  advance  in  the 
self-manifestation  of  the  God  of  Israel  may 
easily  be  traced  in  the  succession  of  the  names 
for  God  w^hich  occur  in  the  Old  Testament. 
These  names  are,  if  one  may  so  speak,  the  high- 
water  marks  of  successive  revelations.  They 
mark  the  limits  reached  by  great  historic 
movements  and  tides  in  Israel's  enlarging 
knowledge  of  God.  The  name  of  God  is  that 
by  which  he  is  known,  that  by  which  he  makes 
himself  known  in  his  relation  to  man,  and 
hence,  when  Christians  pray,  often  so  thought- 
lessly, "  For  thy  name's  sake,"  they  pray  for 
the  sake  of  all  that  God  in  the  past  ages  has 
manifested  himself  to  be,  for  the  sake  of  the 
whole  revelation  of  God  in  which  they  and 
their  fathers  have  believed.  And  the  name  of 
God  grew  more  definite,  more  positive,  more 
manifold  with  the  advancing  history. 

Mr.  Matthew  Arnold,  in  his  "Literature 
and  Dogma,"  seems  strangely  to  have  over- 
looked the  significance  of  this  growth  of  Israel 
in  the  knowledge  of  God,  which  we  can  trace 
through  successive  periods  by  means  of  the 
names  given  to  the  Divine  Being,  at  different 


PROGRESS  IN   THE  NAMES  FOR    GOD.     89 

times,  in  the  biblical  histoiy.  His  failure  to 
follow  this  clue  to  a  ris^ht  understandino^  of 
the  religion  of  the  Bible,  is  an  instructive  les- 
son of  the  need  of  somethino:  more  than  liter- 
ary  criticism — of  the  need,  also,  of  the  historic 
sense — in  the  study  of  the  Bible. 

We  may  sketch,  in  the  following  manner,  the 
rise  and  growth  of  the  names  of  God  in  the 
Old  Testament."^  There  was  one  name  in  use 
among  the  Semitic  people  before  all  others, 
antedating  the  call  of  Abraham,  and  continu- 
ing, also,  down  the  whole  course  of  revelation. 
It  seems  to  furnish  the  distant  and  vague 
background  of  revelation — like  a  receding  and 
infinite  sky — upon  which,  one  after  another, 
many  distinct  names  and  special  manifestations 
of  the  divine  glory  are  brought  out,  and  into 
whose  depths  they  disappear  again. 

From  this  older  and  undefined  Semitic  con- 
ception of  God  as  the  Lord  (El,  Eloah),  we 
are  introduced  into  the  course  of  revelation  by 
a  name  which  became  prevalent  in  the  patriar- 
chal age,  and  which  expresses  a  somewhat 
more  definite  sense  of  Deity,  "  The  Almighty  " 
(El  Schaddai,  Ex.  vi.  3).  This  patriarchal 
designation    of    the    Almighty    God   is   still, 


*  Compare  Ewald  :  Lelire  d.  Bible  von  Gott. ,  ii. ,  pp.  327-348 ; 
and  Oehler:  The.  d.  A.  Test.,  i.,  p.  131  ff.,  and  Articles,  in  loco, 
in  Herzog's  Real  Enc,  for  the  detailed  critical  discussion  of  the 
views  summarized  above. 


90  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

however,  quite  general  and  primitive;  it  in- 
troduces the  conception  of  a  power  above 
nature,  and  thus  is  an  advance  upon  the  deifi- 
cation of  the  vast  power  in  nature ;  but  it  is 
not  a  word  of  distinct  moral  significance,  and 
it  marks,  therefore,  as  a  name  for  God,  the 
beginning  rather  than  the  middle  or  the  end  of 
revelation.  The  sense  of  dependence  upon  the 
infinite  Power  which  is  above  all  finite  exis- 
tence, is  the  beginning  of  the  knowledge  of 
God.  The  book  of  Genesis  lacks,  however, 
the  more  specific  and  richer  names  for  God 
which  can  be  learned,  if  at  all,  only  from  a 
prolonged  moral  experience.  With  the  deliv- 
erance of  Israel  from  Egypt,  at  the  beginning 
of  its  career  as  the  chosen  people,  is  given  that 
divine  name  which  we  might  almost  call 
Israel's  proper  name  of  God — Jehovah ;  a 
name  by  which  was  signified  not  only  the  un- 
changeableness  of  the  God  of  the  covenant, 
but  also  the.  appearance,  or  coming  forth,  of 
God  in  self-revelation.  Jehovah  is  the  self- 
manifesting  God,  God  in  the  course  of  self- 
revelation,  the  historically  appearing  God."^ 
The  exodus  and  the  founding  of  the  theocracy 
give,  also,  the  historical  occasion  for  the  revela- 
tion of  God  as  the  Holy  One.  The  rise  of 
this  divine  name  in  Israel  is  of  peculiar  in- 


Oehler  :  Ibid.,  i.,  s.  144,  150-1. 


PROGRESS  IN  THE  NAMES  FOR    GOD.     9 1 

terest.  We  do  not  find  it  in  the  book  of 
Genesis.  The  antediluvians  and  the  patriarchs 
had  not  been  overpowered  by  the  awful  holi- 
ness of  Jehovah,  as  was  the  lawgiver  upon  the 
mount.  The  very  name,  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel,  marks  a  new  epoch  of  the  history.  It 
is  taught  through  a  marvellous  experience  of 
the  Lord  who  shone  from  the  burning  bush, 
and  who  led  the  people  through  the  sea  in 
whose  mighty  waters  their  pursuers  sank  as 
lead.  (Ex.  xv.  10-11.)  And  through  a  pro- 
longed course  of  moral  history,  by  calamities, 
and  judgments,  and  blessings,  the  full  signifi- 
cance of  that  divine  name,  the  God  of  Holi- 
ness, shall  be  disclosed  to  the  prophets.  After 
the  covenant  was  first  broken  there  appear, 
for  the  first  time,  the  further  desioj-nations  of 
God  as  the  gracious,  merciful,  long-suffering 
God — divine  names  to  whose  refuge  ever  since 
the  penitent  have  fled  for  a  hiding-place  from 
their  sin. 

There  is  another  name  for  the  Lord,  not  oc- 
curring in  the  earlier  Scriptures,  which  evi- 
dently has  a  history.  The  exiled  king  offers 
his  prayer  for  his  return  to  the  sanctuary  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord  of  hosts.  (Ps.  Ixxxiv. 
1, 8.)  To  the  covenant  name,  Jehovah,  he  adds 
in  his  appeal  the  words,  Jehovah  of  Hosts. 
The  Pentateuch  and  the  books  of  Joshua  and 
Judges  lack  this  name  which  the  Psalmist  con- 


92  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

fidently  utters.  It  came  into  general  use  du- 
ring the  times  of  Samuel  and  David,  and  is 
associated  with  the  early  fortunes  of  the  mon- 
archy. (1  Sam.  i.  3,  xvii.  45.)  It  is  a  tri- 
umphant, royal  name  for  the  God  of  Israel. 
It  was  a  name,  then,  which  had  been  histori- 
cally given.  Ewald  thinks  it  first  was  heard 
on  some  great  day  of  battle,  and  was  hallowed 
in  the  song  and  jubilee  of  some  signal  victory. 
What  unforeseen  deliverances,  and  help  of  in- 
visible allies,  as  the  appearance  over  the  battle- 
field of  chariots  of  the  Lord,  and  the  heavenly 
host,  may  be  commemorated  in  that  new  name 
of  Israel's  triumphant  trust  —  Jehovah  of 
Hosts!  It  was  a  name  full  of  meaninof  and 
full  of  faith,  because  it  was  a  historical  name 
— a  name  of  great  memories  and  triumphs,  of 
royal  thanksgivings  and  national  jubilee.  It 
became  the  favorite  expression  of  the  later 
prophets  when  they  would  declare  their  in- 
vincible faith  in  the  majesty  of  Jehovah,  and 
his  sovereignty  over  all  powers  and  dominions, 
on  earth  and  in  heaven.  They  seal,  as  it  were, 
the  words  of  their  prophecy  with  this  exalted 
name,  Jehovah  of  Hosts. 

But  these  successive  names  for  God,  which 
were  historically  given  and  are  full  of  historic 
meaning,  all  pass  away  before  the  rising  of 
the  Name  in  which  the  whole  historical  reve- 
lation was  fulfilled.     While  the  Mohammedan 


FR  UlTS  OF  RE  VELA  TION^  THE  FAMIL  V,     9  3 

exults  because  the  Korau  gives  him  a  '^  hundred 
names  of  God  which  he  can  weave  in  one 
wreath  of  prayer,"  the  Christian  rejoices  that 
he  can  make  known  his  request  to  the  Father 
in  the  One  Name,  by  which  Grod  has  manifested 
his  very  nature,  and  finished  the  revelation  of 
his  glory,  for  in  him  dwelleth  all  the  fulness 
of  the  Godhead  bodily.*     (Col.  ii.  9.) 

The  didactic  purpose  of  revelation,  and  the 
progressive  work  of  the  Bible  in  the  moral 
education  of  mankind,  may  be  further  illus- 
trated and  confirmed  by  certain  results  which 
have  been  accomplished  by  it.  The  fruits 
which  remain  show  the  success  of  this  divine 
policy  of  revelation.  By  this  wisely-arranged 
and  patiently  pursued  biblical  course  of  human 
education,  man  has  been  taught  certain  great 
moral  lessons,  and  taught  them  so  effectually 
that  he  will  never  forget  them.  The  lesson 
of  the  worth  of  the  family  is  a  case  in  j^oint. 
In  the  blessing  of  the  Christian  home  we  have 
one   of   the   worked-out   results,    one   of    the 


*  Ewald  :  Lehre  von  Gott.,  ii. ,  s.  333,  distinguishes  five  names 
for  God,  corresponding  with  the  five  great  periods  of  the  histoiy 
of  Israel.  God  is  the  "  Almighty  "  of  the  patriarchs  ;"  Jehovah  " 
of  the  covenant ;  the  "  God  of  hosts  "  of  the  monarchy,  the  "  Holy 
One"    of    the   Deuteronomist   and    later   prophetic   age;   "Our  V" 

Lord  "  of  Judaism — and  Christianity  brings  no  new  name,  but 
fulfils  all.  Though  we  may  hesitate  to  mark  with  such  definite- 
ness  the  changes  in  the  prevalent  names  for  God  in  Israel,  we 
can  hardly  fail  to  see  in  their  succession  an  evidence  of  one 
gradually  developing  revelation  of  the  true  God. 


94  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

tlioroiiglily- taught  lessons  of  a  progressive  rev- 
elation. If  it  required  ages  to  school  man  in 
that  truth,  nevertheless,  when  the  divine  in- 
struction was  over,  the  lesson  never  needed  to 
be  taught  again.  The  manner  and  progress 
of  this  teaching  were  as  follows.  The  Old 
Testament  bes^ins  in  an  as^e  of  the  world, 
wholly  destitute  of  any  just  conception  of  the 
individual  and  his  rights,  and  sets  up,  as  a  first 
lesson,  or  example,  the  Hebrew  family — Abra- 
ham and  Sarah,  Isaac  and  E-ebecca.  Judged 
by  our  standard,  these  were  by  no  means 
model  families.  They  were,  however,  good 
examples  for  their  own  times.  In  the  Hebrew 
family,  imperfect  and  even  polygamous  as  it 
was,  one  great  blessing  for  the  household  was 
secured — the  Hebrew  love  for  a  family-name 
and  inheritance.  Revelation  is  content  first  to 
teach  a  truth  which  the  Hebrew  mind  can 
comprehend,  and  which  Israel  does  thoroughly 
learn.  Hevelation  lays  hold  first  of  a  great 
natural  instinct,  and  hallows  it.  The  God  of 
the  Bible  singles  out  the  family-line  as  the 
means  of  conveyance  of  his  promised  blessing. 
Already,  by  this  first  lesson,  the  Hebrew  family, 
in  the  patriarchal  age,  gains  a  sanctity  which 
it  possessed  nowhere  else  in  the  East.  Then, 
the  germ  of  a  better  family-life  being  thus 
given,  the  laws  of  Moses  close  around  it,  and 
protect   it.       The    teaching    of    the   prophets 


FR  UITS  OF  RE  VELA  TION—  THE  FAMIL  V.     95 

purify  and  hallow  it.  But  the  law  of  divorce, 
given  on  account  of  the  hardness  of  men's 
hearts,  has  not  yet  dropped  away.  The  com- 
mandment is  not  yet  perfect.  At  last  a 
dauo^hter  of  the  house  of  David  brins^s  to 
womanhood  the  blessing  of  the  Highest.  In 
the  teaching  of  Christ  the  scaffolding  of  the 
law,  once  needed,  is  taken  away;  the  tempo- 
rary expedients  are  cleared  off ;  the  impei*f ect 
is  made  complete  ;  and,  at  last,  grounded  in 
the  essential  morality  of  the  law,  and  built  up 
and  cemented  by  the  experience  and  historic 
sentiments  of  a  race,  arises  the  institution  of 
the  Christian  family.  Look  to  the  end,  toward 
which  the  law  of  Moses  was  a  great  step  for- 
ward for  his  day.  God  did  not  make  the 
family,  as  he  did  not  create  the  world,  in  a 
week.  It  was  a  slow  but  successful  process, 
by  which,  under  his  guiding  hand,  so  divine  a 
creation  was  formed  and  perfected.  The  God 
of  the  Bible  only  began  the  lesson  of  the  true 
nature  and  law  of  the  family  with  Abraham ; 
he  continued  it  and  improved  it  with  Moses ; 
he  taught  its  inviolable  sanctity  in  the  peni- 
tential Psalms  of  David.  It  was  a  hard  lesson 
to  make  a  corrupt,  passionate  world  learn  by 
heart.  But  when  the  Bible  is  finished,  behold  ! 
this  divine  institution  is  also  finished.  When 
the  Bible  is  done,  the  family  is  secured  for- 
ever.    The  family  is  itself  a  word  of  God — a 


9 6  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

word  spoken  in  part  by  the  prophets,  but  at 
last  perfectly  declared  by  the  Son  of  Man, 
whose  words  shall  never  pass  away — a  final 
and  authoritative  word  of  the  Eternal;  and 
the  gates  of  the  Hell  of  our  nineteenth  century 
infamy  of  free  love  shall  not  prevail  against 
it! 

In  connection  with  this  course  of  revelation 
by  means  of  which  the  Christian  home  was 
secured,  two  other  results  of  the  development 
of  the  Bible  should  be  taken  into  consideration 
— the  abolition  of  human  sacrifice,  and  the 
abolition  of  slavery.  Both  of  these  customs 
were  fatal  foes  of  the  family,  and  the  same 
wise  and  patient  course  of  divine  dealing 
which  established  the  institution  of  the  family, 
swept  away,  likewise,  these  enemies  of  its 
peace.  The  trial  of  Abraham's  faith,  and  its 
far-reaching  consequences,  introduces  to  us  the 
biblical  method  of  checking,  and  in  time  re- 
moving, the  very  source  of  that  evil  which 
made  many  a  land  in  antiquity  run  red  with 
the  blood  of  sacrifices. 

Herbert  Spencer,  and  other  statistical  phi- 
losophers, are  accustomed  to  regard  the  offer- 
ing of  Isaac  as  only  one  among  many  illustra- 
tions of  a  cruel  superstition  prevalent  through- 
out the  whole  low  level  of  a  primitive  culture. 
But  that  which  distinguishes  this  transaction 
fi'om  all  other  ancient  sacrifices,  that  which  is 


ABRAHAM'S  LESSON  AND   ITS  FRUIT.     97 

altogether  peculiar  and  influential  in  tlie  trial 
of  Abraham's  faith,  is  quietly  overlooked  in 
the  rapid  generalizations  of  these  writers.  Its 
place  and  work  in  the  development  of  a  pure 
religious  faith  are  the  chief  questions  to  be  de- 
termined ;  and,  when  we  have  clearly  grasped 
that,  we  shall  find  ourselves  free  from  the 
moral  embarrassment  in  which  even  Christian 
readers  of  the  Bible  have  sometimes  left  this 
narrative.  A  common  method  of  justifying 
the  morality  of  the  divine  command  to  Abra- 
ham asserts  the  absolute  right  of  the  Creator 
over  life,  and  the  obligation  of  obedience  to  a 
divine  injunction  as  the  supreme  duty  of  man."^ 
But  this  apology  for  Abi*aham^s  action  rests 
upon  the  untenable  assumption  that  morality 
is  based  upon  the  will  of  God,  and  not  upon 
the  essential  character  of  God  ;  and  it  ignores 
the  consideration  urged  by  Canon  Mozley  that 
no  miracle  could  be  to  us  an  evidence  of  a 
divine  command,  if  it  required  a  contradiction 
of  our  standard  of  morality  ;  and  one  of  the 
facts  of  the  narrative  to  be  explained  is,  how 
Abraham — moral  reformer  as  he  was — could 
conscientiously  have  believed  that  he  was 
called  by  the  Lord  to  offer  up  his  only  son. 
The  reproach  cast  upon  the  morality  of  the 
Old  Testament  by  unbelievers  in  its  inspiration 


So  Rogers  :  Superhuman  Origin  of  the  Bible,  Appendix. 
5 


9^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

is  partly  justified  by  the  arbitrary  justifica- 
tions of  its  imperfect  or  incomplete  examples 
and  precepts,  still  too  prevalent  among  be- 
lievers in  its  divine  authority.  Dean  Stanley, 
with  his  usual  genial  historic  sense,  hints  at 
the  simple  and  true  explanation  of  the  difiicul- 
ties  which  the  conscience  of  to-day  may  raise 
concerning  the  offering  of  Isaac  when  he 
says,  ^  "  There  are  few,  if  any,  which  will  not 
vanish  away  before  the  simple  pathos,  and 
lofty  spirit  of  the  narrative  itself,  provided 
that  we  take  it,  as  in  fairness  it  must  be  taken, 
as  a  whole ;  its  close  not  parted  from  its  com- 
mencement, nor  its  commencement  from  its 
close — the  subordinate  parts  of  the  transaction 
not  raised  above  its  essential  primary  inten- 
tion." Dr.  Mozley  leads  his  readers  on  the 
right  ground,  when  he  estimates  the  whole 
morality  of  the  Old  Testament  dispensation  by 
the  moral  standard  of  its  own  times,  and  by 
the  intention  or  design  of  it,  which  appears 
when  the  end  of  the  dispensation  is  reached. 
In  his  discussion,  however,  of  the  divine 
morality  in  the  command  given  to  Abraham 
to  offer  up  Isaac,  the  historical  effect  of  that 
divine  policy  needs  to  be  brought  more  promi- 
nently to  the  foreground.  The  simple  and 
satisfactory  explanation  of  this  vexed  passage 


*  Lectures  on  the  Jewish  Church,  First  Series,  p.  54. 


ABRAHAM'S  LESSON  AND  ITS  FRUIT.     99 

of  Scripture  seems  to  us  to  be  as  follows : — A 
progressive  revelation  has  a  twofold  object,  a 
remote  and  a  present  work.  Everything  in  it 
must  be  ordered  in  view  of  the  ulterior  de- 
sign, and  in  accordance  also  with  the  con- 
ditions of  society  at  each  particular  step  of  its 
course.  Divine  accommodation  to  a  lower 
level  of  human  ideas,  or  imperfect  condition  ^ 
of  man's  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  is  per- 
fectly moral,  in  so  far  as  it  tends  to  overcome 
the  imperfect  and  to  help  on  the  development 
of  conscience  to  that  which  is  perfect ;  in  so 
far,  that  is,  as  it  is  the  accommodation  of  the 
teacher  to  the  pupil  in  carrying  out,  and  solely 
for  the  sake  of  carrying  out,  the  design  of  the 
whole  course  of  instruction.  Any  accommo- 
dation to  error  or  imperfection  which  gives  the 
error  new  vitality,  or  makes  the  imperfection 
last  longer,  would  not  be  a  justifiable  act  on 
the  part  of  the  teacher,  but  rather  a  partici- 
pation in  the  fault  of  the  pupil.  Here,  then, 
was  Abraham  with  a  new  truth  of  God  grow- 
ing in  his  mind,  and  ready  to  take  his  stand 
as  a  moral  reformer  in  a  corrupt  world ;  with 
the  promise  of  a  future  in  which  all  nations 
of  the  earth  should  be  blessed,  glowing  before 
him ;  yet  with  the  memories,  and  instincts,  and 
habits  of  the  people,  and  the  land,  from  which 
he  was  called  to  go  forth,  still  dimming  his 
moral  vision,  confusing  his  ideas,  and  binding 


lOO  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

liim,  tlie  heir  of  the  future,  to  the  past.  He 
needed  to  be  taught,  in  the  most  impressive 
manner  possible,  the  elementary  lessons  of  the 
new  faith  which,  eventually,  was  to  bless  man- 
kind. He  needed  a  special  providential 
schooling  adapted  to  his  mental  and  moral 
state  and  capacity ;  a  divine  teaching  which 
should  take  him  up  where  his  previous  educa- 
tion had  left  him,  and  send  him  on  beyond  his 
age.  He  needed,  in  this  special  manner,  to 
be  taught  of  God,  not  only  for  himself,  but 
also  for  the  sake  of  the  promised  race.  The 
whole  design  of  revelation  made  necessary 
some  effectual  teachinof  and  trial  of  Abra- 
ham's  faith.  Now,  in  judging  fairly  the  meth- 
od of  God  in  tr^ang  Abraham's  faith  for  his 
own  ulterior  purposes  of  good,  we  have  to  do 
with  the  actual  historical  influence,  and  result, 
of  the  method  providentially  chosen.  What 
was  the  effect  of  the  command  to  offer  up 
Isaac  on  the  superstitions  which  made  idola- 
trous lands  abound  in  human  sacrifices? 
What,  as  matter  of  fact  and  history,  did  the 
divine  teacher  accomplish  by  his  way  of  in- 
structing Abraham  ?  Surround  yourself  with 
the  actual  historical  conditions  of  Abraham's 
time.  It  is  no  easy  task  to  lift  a  man,  to 
raise  a  race,  out  of  the  ideas  and  customs  of 
their  acce.  Yet  Abraham  must  be  lifted 
above   his  age,  and  Israel  is  called  to  be  a 


ABRAHAM'S  LESSON  AND   ITS  FRUIT.    lOI 

peculiar  people.  But  how?  The  difficulty  is  , 
increased  by  the  fact  that  many  of  the  worst  K 
idolatries  and  superstitions,  which  a  progres- 
sive revelation  must  utterly  destroy,  have 
truths  at  the  root  of  them — and  a  divine  wis- 
dom of  reform  cannot  move,  like  human 
fanaticism,  with  the  besom  of  destruction  in 
its  hand.  In  that  most  cruel  heathen  rite  of 
human  sacrifice  there  is  a  truth  providentially 
to  be  cared  for,  as  well  as  a  fearful  evil  to  be 
abolished.  There  is  a  pure  truth  at  the  heart 
of  sacrifice.  Now,  suppose  that,  as  the  moral 
teacher  of  an  uninstructed  age,  in  which  the 
very  truths  needed  for  all  human  progress 
were  overgrown  with  deadly  superstitions, 
you  wished  to  disentangle  the  true  from  the 
false;  suppose  that,  as  the  instructor  of  the 
man  chosen  to  be  the  reformer  of  that  ao:e, 
you  wished  to  separate  the  true  from  the 
false  in  the  doctrine*  of  sacrifice.  Suppose, 
moreover,  you  wished  to  prevent  the  fearful 
abuse,  and  to  show  the  right  use,  of  sacrifice, 
in  a  manner  which  should  never  be  misunder- 
stood or  forgotten.  Suppose  you  wished  to 
teach  the  right  idea  of  the  offering  acceptable 
unto  God,  in  a  manner  so  vivid  and  effectual, 
that  the  race  whose  moral  education  you  had 
in  hand,  should  ever  afterward  count  it  a  sin 
to  offer  human  sacrifice ;  and  suppose,  besides 
this,  you  wished  to  make  your  teaching,  also, 


I02  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

a  trial  of  faitli,  which  should  develop  and 
confirm  the  veiy  spirit  which  you  knew  to  be 
essential  to  the  whole  subsequent  advancement 
of  your  pupil ;  and  that  you  had,  moreover,  a 
still  ulterior  design  whose  meaning  could  be- 
come known  only  when  the  whole  course  of 
instruction  should  be  completed,  and  all  sug- 
gestions and  types  of  the  earlier  discipline  be 
read  in  the  light  of  their  perfect  fulfilment. 
Now,  can  you  imagine  a  better  way  to  teach 
that  lesson,  a  more  effectual  way  of  accom- 
plishing those  beneficent  intentions,  than  that 
pursued  by  the  divine  wisdom  in  teaching 
Abraham,  and  fitting  him  to  be  the  father  of 
a  chosen  people  ?  The  lesson  began  with  the 
truth  at  the  heart  of  sacrifice.  It  continued 
by  testing  and  confirming  Abraham's  faith  in 
that  truth,  which  it  was  most  necessary  Israel 
should  preserve  as  his  race  grew  up  out  of 
idolatry.  The  divine  lesson  ended  by  casting 
out  completely  and  effectually  the  erroneous 
heathen  ideas  of  sacrifice  in  which  Abraham 
had  grown  up.  God  seems,  at  first,  to  acquiesce 
in  the  prevailing  low  theology  of  sacrifice  ; — the 
hard  commandment  comes  a(;cording  to  the 
ideas  of  the  age ;  and  Abraham,  not  deterred 
by  anything  in  the  spirit  of  his  times,  obeys. 
Thouo^h  it  was  a  seeminor  contradiction  to 
God's  previous  word  of  promise  to  him,  and  a 
fearful  trial  to  his  new-found  faith,  still  he  has 


ABRAHAM'S  LESSON  AND  ITS  FRUIT.    103 

not  as  yet  a  conscience  advanced  enougli  to 
make  liim  doubt  the  divine  command,  and, 
though  it  all  seems  very  strange,  he  believes 
and  obeys.  Thus  the  first  truth,  the  truth 
needed  for  the  whole  future  glory  of  Israel,  is 
secured.  God  sanctions,  by  his  commandment, 
the  truth  at  the  heart  of  sacrifice,  that  all  that 
vre  have  is  his,  and  with  entire  faith  in  his 
goodness  should  be  devoted  to  him.  Man  can 
take  not  a  single  step  forward  until  he  learns 
by  heart  this  first  truth  of  self-surrender. 
Abraham,  under  the  hard  commandment,  learns 
it,  and  is  counted  the  father  of  the  faith- 
ful. But  he  prepares  ignorantly  to  follow 
that  tinith.  Then  the  divine  word  comes 
Avhich  prevents  the  fearful  abuse  of  the  truth 
which  was  sanctioned  by  the  morality  of  his 
age.  The  divine  interposition — not  a  moment 
too  soon,  not  a  moment  too  late — frees  the 
truth  of  sacrifice  from  a  fatal  error,  and  sends 
the  Hebrew  race  a  great  step  onward  toward 
the  Gospel  of  mercy.  The  whole  transaction, 
in  short,  is  a  divine  object-lesson,  adapted  to 
the  times  in  which  it  was  given,  and  successful 
in  its  results.  It  is  noticeable,  in  confirmation 
of  this  didactic  view,  or  pedagogical  interpre- 
tation of  this  scene,  that  in  the  Hebrew  text 
the  name  of  God  in  the  first  commandment  to 
Abraham  is  the  more  general  name  for  the 
Deity — the  unrevealed  God  of  the  creation, — 


I04  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

while  it  is  Jeliovali,  tlie  self -revealing  God, 
who  speaks  the  word  which  prevents  the  shed- 
ding of  blood ;  and  the  meaning  of  that  sadly 
mistranslated  word,  God  tempted  Abraham, 
is,  God  tried  Abraham,  or,  as  we  might  say, 
God  taught  Abraham  a  lesson.  Now  mark  the 
subsequent  historical  effect  of  that  lesson  so 
painfully  taught  the  father  of  the  faithful. 
Abraham  never  needed,  himself,  to  be  taught  a 
second  time  that  God  does  not  wish  the  offer- 
ing of  blood.  No  Hebrew  parent,  reading  that 
story  in  after  years,  and  teaching  it  to  his 
children,  would  ever  think  of  pleasing  the 
God  of  Abraham  by  offering  to  him  his  first- 
born son ;  it  became  an  abomination  in  Israel 
to  cause  children  to  pass  through  the  fire  of 
Moloch,  and  the  later  prophets  knew  that  God 
loves  mercy  rather  than  sacrifice.  Though 
the  influence  of  surrounding  idolatries  may  on 
rare  occasions  have  led  Israel  into  the  traojic 
sin  of  offering  human  sacrifices,  the  Hebrew 
law  and  custom,  and  the  whole  providential 
leading  of  the  people  from  Abraham's  day  on, 
were  against  it;  and  they  who  would  sit  in 
judgment  upon  this  divine  procedure  should 
not  be  suffered  to  i^rnore  the  decisive  fact  that 
the  God  of  Abraham  is  \kiQ  God  whose  course 
of  moral  education  succeeded  in  destroying  the 
fatal  errors,  and  saving  the  vital  truth,  of  sac- 
rifice ;  and  that  the  beginning  of  this  great, 


FRUITS   OF  REVELATION— FREEDOM.     I05 

beneficent,  providential  instruction  in  the  true 
meaning  of  sacrifice  was  the  vivid  historical 
object-lesson  which  God  taught  Abraham  of 
old,  and  which  Israel  has  not  forgotten  to  this 
day. 

Having  dwelt  at  some  length  upon  the 
method  of  divine  education  illustrated  by 
God's  dealing  with  Abraham,  we  may  dismiss, 
with  few  words,  the  course  taken  by  revelation 
in  abolishing  finally  that  other  foe  of  domestic 
purity,  and  the  welfare  of  society, — human 
slavery.  The  fact  that  arguments  in  defence 
of  slavery  used  to  be  drawn  from  the  Bible, 
shows  the  need  of  popular  instruction  with  re- 
gard to  the  development  of  revelation,  and  the 
guiding  spirit  of  the  Bible.  V/e  may  not  stand 
holding  fast  to  the  letter,  while  the  whole  cur- 
rent of  revelation  sweeps  on.  Revelation  in 
the  end  has  succeeded  in  developing  the  idea 
of  the  individual  and  his  rights,  which  was 
wanting  in  an  early  day,  and  which  could  be 
firmly  secured  only  by  a  patient  work  of  God 
in  human  history.  That  idea  never  Avould 
have  been  developed  and  made  a  fundamental 
truth  of  modern  society,  had  it  not  been  for 
the  Bible,  and  the  progressive  revelation  of  the 
Bible.  The  fountain-head  of  this  now  universal 
truth  is  in  the  original  Hebrew  account  of  the 
creation.  Man  came  to  a  knowledge  of  him- 
self as  an  individual  possessed  of  certain  in- 
5* 


T06  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

alienable  rights,  wlien  God  became  to  his 
thought  a  perfect  and  glorious  Person,  with 
whom  he  was  created  to  live  in  a  holy  commu- 
nion. The  idea  of  the  human  soul,  and  its 
sacredness  before  God,  springing  out  of  the 
very  fact  of  the  creation,  was  deepened  and 
increased  with  the  enlarging  revelation  of 
God's  glory  in  Israel.  Human  slavery  was 
not  suddenly  abolished  by  any  commandment 
from  Sinai.  But  revelation  threw  the  truths 
into  history,  and  let  them  grow  there,  which 
made  the  abolition  of  slavery  all  over  the 
world  only  a  question  of  time.  Eightly 
viewed,  and  fairly  judged,  the  successive  posi- 
tions and  whole  historic  influence  of  the  Bible 
with  regard  to  slavery  are  a  signal  illustration 
of  the  large  and  wise  and  successful  policy  of 
revelation  in  the  work  of  man's  moral  educa- 
tion and  social  reform.  A  too  early  prohibi- 
^  tion  might  have  been  a  dead  law.  A  living, 
growing  principle  of  opposition  to  evil  is  what 
the  world  needs.  A  long  course  of  constitu- 
tional treatment  is  j-equisite  for  the  cure  of 
humanity  from  sin — a  patient  history  of  re- 
demption— not  heroic  surgery,  not  the  fanati- 
cism of  a  wild  justice.  In  Moses's  day  the  age 
of  the  individualVas  not  yet  fully  come.  The 
ages  of  the  patriarchal  family,  of  the  tribe,  of 
the  kingdom,  of  the  nation,  are  first  in  order 
before  the  age  of  fully-developed  and  ^vell-ad- 


FRUITS    OF  REVELATION— FREEDOM.     I07 

justed  individual  rights.  Revelation  constantly 
presses  forward  the  truth  of  individual  right, 
and  presses  it  on  as  far,  and  as  fast,  as  man  is 
fitted  to  receive  and  to  keep  it.  The  germ  of 
the  truth  which  shall  overthrow  at  last  every 
form  of  human  bondaore  is  contained  in  the  in- 
spired  teaching  of  man's  creation — all  men 
have  one  origin,  all  men  breathe  the  breath 
of  the  living  God.  The  rite  of  circumcision, 
marking,  as  it  does,  the  exemption  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Abraham  from  the  hard  necessity  of 
being  offered  in  sacrifice  to  appease  God,  was 
subsequently  extended  to  the  servants  of  the 
household,  so  that  the  patriarchal  law  threw 
the  protection  of  its  sacred  covenant  not  only 
over  the  humblest  and  poorest  child  of  Abra- 
ham, but  also  over  those  who  had  been  pur- 
chased from  a  strange  land."^  The  law,  which 
rested  on  these  fundamental  truths  of  Genesis, 
proceeded  to  ordain  regulations  which  should 
prevent  the  absolute  power  of  masters ;  f 
which  protected  female  slaves,  especially,  from 
gross  cruelty  ;  J  and  w^hich  should  make  possi- 
ble a  day  of  emancipation.  And  over  the 
humane  regulations  of  the  law  was  thrown  the 
force  of  a  sentiment  which  should  still  farther 


*  Gen.  xvii.  12-13. 

f  Ex.  xxi.  20. 

X  Deut.  xxl  10  seq. 


Io8  OLD    FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

mollify  the  condition  of  slaves  in  Israel — a 
sentiment  of  humanity  ev^er  kept  alive  in  Israel 
by  the  memory  that  once  their  fathers  had 
been  strangers  in  the  land  of  bondage.  The 
precepts  of  the  apostles  with  regard  to  ser- 
vants are  the  Christian  continuation  of  the 
truths  and  emotions  which,  from  the  beginning, 
along  the  whole  course  of  revelation,  had  been 
quietly  yet  effectually  at  work  against  all 
cruelty,  oppression,  and  bondage,  and  which 
have  reached  at  last  their  most  successful  issue 
in  the  freedom  of  all  Christian  lands.  We 
must  judge  the  tree  by  the  fruit ;  and  freedom 
is  the  fruit  of  that  revelation  which  was 
planted,  a  growing  truth,  in  the  soul  of  Abra- 
ham of  old.  Historically,  the  abolition  of 
slavery  is  due  to  the  Bible,  and  the  religion  of 
the  Bible.  The  progress  of  truth  in  the  his- 
torical course  of  revelation  was  all  in  that 
direction;  and  the  influence  of  the  finished 
Bible,  of  the  whole  BiV)le,  has  been,  through- 
out modern  history,  a  felt  power  on  the  side 
of  the  weak  and  the  oppressed^  and  in  defence 
of  liberty  of  conscience  and  the  divine  sacred- 
ness  of  every  human  soul.  Men  must  liide  the 
Bible  from  the  people,  if  they  would  steal  now 
the  liberties  of  man. 

One  other  illustration  of  the  progress  of 
revelation  according  to  the  wise  methods  of 
the  schoolmaster,  we  will  select  from  the  many 


GROWTH  OF  BELIEF  IN  IMMORTALITY,     IO9 

that  might  be  adduced,  because  we  wish  to 
group  together  examples  enough,  around  our 
central  idea  of  a  divine  development  of  tlie 
Bible,  to  make  it  definite  and  clear  ;  and  be- 
cause it  is  in  itself  a  truth  often  discussed  and 
of  much  interest.  The  question  has  been 
raised  whether  the  truth  of  personal  immor- 
tality is  taught  in  the  Old  Testament.  Here, 
also,  besides  the  letter  of  Scripture,  the  docu- 
mentary reveLation  which  remains,  let  us  mark 
the  flow  of  the  current  upon  which  the  relig- 
ion of  Israel  was  borne  on.  Personal  immortal- 
ity was  evidently  not  the  first  word  of  life 
tauglit  to  man  by  tlie  Divine  Educator.  On 
the  contrary,  the  earliest  promise  is  the  vague 
expectation  of  some  blessing  to  come  to  man- 
kind in  the  dim  future.  One  searches  in  vain 
throughout  the  earlier  books  of  tlie  Bil)le  for 
any  pronounced  teaching  with  regard  to  per- 
sonal immortality.  It  is  a  truth  held,  as  ifc 
were,  in  reserve  by  the  God  of  the  Bible. 
One  finds,  however,  laid  in  the  first  courses  of 
revelation,  a  broad  fundamental  truth,  which 
shall  afterward  be  used  as  the  substantial 
basis  upon  which  the  higher  hope  may  rise. 
The  permanence  of  human  society,  the  worth 
of  natural  affections,  and  especially  the  sa- 
credness  of  the  parental  relation,  are  the 
lower  truths  which  are  first  providentially  se- 
cured, and  which  form  the  firm  foundation  for 


I  lO  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

faith  in  the  higher  relationships  of  a  divine 
society, — iov  that  belief  in  the  fatherhood  of 
God,  and  the  sonship  of  man,  without  which 
there  can  be  no  real,  abiding  faith  in  immor- 
tality in  our  hearts.  The  lower,  but  most 
necessary,  hope  is  first  born  in  Israel.  The 
expectation  of  a  perpetual  name  in  Israel  is 
the  germinant  hope  of  immortality  in  the 
earlier  ages.  It  was  Abraham's  all  absorbing 
desire.  This  primitive  hope  of  a  family-name 
and  inheritance  became  afterward  enriched, 
and  one  might  almost  say,  spiritualized,  by  its 
blending  with  the  Messianic  hope  of  Israel. 
The  Messianic  ao^e  was  to  the  devout  Hebrew 
in  the  prophetic  times  almost  what  Heaven  is 
to  us.  And  it  is  noticeable  that  the  day  when 
the  Sadducees  flourished  most,  with  their  denial 
of  the  resurrection,  was  the  very  day  when 
the  Messianic  hojDe  was  well  nigh  given  up  in 
the  despairing  cry  of  the  priests  :  ''  We  have 
no  king  but  Caesar."  The  whole  develop- 
ment of  the  doctrine  of  immortality  through 
the  Bible  follows  the  divine  law  so  clearly 
apprehended  by  an  apostle,  who  lived  far 
enough  down  in  the  history  of  Israel  to  have 
a  philosophy  of  that  history  :  ''  Howbeit,  that 
was  not  first  which  is  spiritual,  but  that  which 
is  natural,  and  afterward  that  which  is  spirit- 
ual." Through  the  family,  and  the  hope  of  the 
preservation  of  a  name  in  one's  descendants, 


GROWTH  OF  BELIEF  IN  IMMORTALITY.     1 1 1 

was  formed  an  outward,  natural  sheatli  for 
the  finer  spiritual  belief  in  immortality.  We 
can  observe  with  some  distinctness  the  gradual 
unfolding  of  this  better  hope.  It  appears  in 
some  of  the  Psalms.  The  Hebrew  poetry- 
early  felt  the  stirrings  of  the  instinct  of  immor- 
tality ; — the  shock  of  calamity  strikes  out,  as  it 
were,  sparks  of  that  divine  light  which  ever 
lies  latent  in  the  soul  of  man.  These  mo- 
ments of  poetic  illumination,  however,  were 
too  evanescent, — but  foregleams  of  the  coming 
revelation.  The  loftiest  minds  glow  with  the 
dawn,  but  the  common  mind  in  lowly  life 
seems  hardly  to  have  been  illumined  by  it. 
The  continual  disappointment  of  their  history, 
and  the  vision  of  the  judgments  impending 
upon  Israel,  drove  the  later  prophets  to  more 
spiritual  interpretations  of  God's  great  provi- 
dential purposes,  and  hence  they  gained  more 
elevated  conceptions  of  the  future  kingdom  of 
God,  in  which  the  dead  shall  live  again,  and 
rio^hteousness  receive  its  fittino^  rewards.  The 
truth  involved  in  the  te^chino^  of  the  Penta- 
teuch,  that  after  death  the  soul  has  still  some 
relation  to  the  living  God,  is  developed  more 
clearly  and  consciously  by  the  prophets  ;  but 
still  the  thousrht  of  the  overcoming^  of  death 
for  the  individual  is  wrapt  up  in  the  more 
general  conception  of  the  final  triumph,  and 
everlasting  inheritance,  of  the  sacred  commu- 


112  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

nity,  the  trae  Israel."^  It  is  the  chosen  people 
who  shall  be  ransomed  from  the  power  of  the 
grave.  Ephraim  shall  be  redeemed  from  death. 
But  within  this  hope  for  the  chosen  race  is 
quietly  enfolded,  and  growing  all  the  time,  the 
hope  of  personal  immortality.  One  great  im- 
pulse to  the  further  development  of  this  truth 
was  provided  by  the  experience  which  pressed 
ever  more  severely  upon  the  minds  of  men, 
that  justice  is  not  always  meted  out  in  this 
world,  that  the  wicked  often  prosper  to  the 
last  day  of  their  lives,  and  that  the  righteous 
do  not  receive  here  the  full  rewards  of  their 
labors.  This  old  riddle  of  human  experience 
cannot  be  solved  unless  we  bring  to  it  the 
key  of  this  truth  that  the  just  shall  live  again. 
The  righteous  who  have  died,  overborne  by 
the  judgments  which  fell  upon  Israel, — shall 
not  they  have  part  in  the  final  triumph  of  the 
true  Israel  ?  So  in  the  twenty-sixth  chapter 
of  Isaiah,  the  prophet  struggles  with  this  ques- 
tion, until  he  breaks  out  at  last  into  the  trium- 
phal strain:  **Thy  tlead  men  shall  live,  to- 
gether with  my  dead  body  shall  they  arise. 
Awake  and  sing,  ye  that  dwell  in  the  dust !  " 
This  is  the  only  possible  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem of  life  ;  and  it  is  the  conclusion  toward 
which  the  history  of  Israel,  with  its  increas- 


*  Ps.  cii.  24-28;  Hosea  xiii.  14.  See  Oehler,  opus  cit.,  ii.  240. 


GROWTH  OF  BELIEF  IN  IMMORTALITY.     I  I  3 

ing  burden  of  suffering  and  death,  presses  on 
to  Christ. 

In  the  storms  of  the  Maccabsean  age,  the 
belief  in  immortality  rose  more  brightly  than 
ever  before.*  The  prophet  Daniel,  whose 
words,  if  not  written  in  that  age,  were  certainly 
for  that  age,  holds  up  before  the  first  martyrs 
of  that  beginning  of  persecutions  the  hope  of 
shining  as  the  stars  forever  and  ever. 

We  find,  then,  the  belief  that  there  is  exis- 
tence after  death  involved  in  the  fundamental 
religious  conceptions  of  Israel. f  But  the  truth 
of  personal  immortality  is  a  truth  struggling 
upward,  a  growing  truth  of  the  Old  Dispen- 
sation ;  it  is  hardly  a  fully-formed  hope,  or 
ripened  doctrine.  It  is  in  the  Old  Testament, 
but  in  it  germinantly  and  potentially ;  it  is  the 
hope  of  the  prophets  in  their  highest  moments 
of  inspiration,  but  Christ  must  bring  life  and 
immortality  to  light  before  it  can  shine,  a 
steady  and  transfiguring  light  of  life,  for  the 
world. 

It  seems  surprising  that  a  truth  so  vital  to 
religion,  in  our  view,  as  the  hope  of  immortal- 
ity, should  have  been  left  in  the  background  of 
the  primeval  revelation;  and  some  Christian 
writers,  therefore,  can  hardly  credit  the  indica- 
tions that  the  doctrine  of  the  re^vards  of  the 


*  Ewald  :  v.  306. 

f  For  further  proof  see  Prof.  Mead,  The  Soul,  Chap.  vii. 


I  14  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

future  life,  so  essential  to  their  conception  of 
true  religion,  was  not  made  one  of  the  promi- 
nent, working  truths  of  the  Old  Dispensation. 
In  this,  as  in  some  other  doctrines,  they  seek  by- 
forced  interpretations  to  extract  from  the  seed 
elements  of  truth  which  the  God  of  the  harvest 
left  to  appear  in  the  fruit  of  revelation.  They 
can  hardly  be  restrained  from  reading  the 
Gospel  in  Genesis,  and  finding  the  grace  and 
truth  which  came  by  Christ  in  the  law  of 
Moses.  All  such  overanxious  and  impatient 
interpreters  need  to  be  reminded  again  and 
again  of  Bishop  Butler's  sober  reasoning 
concerning  "our  incapacity  of  judging  what 
were  to  be  expected  in  a  revelation  ;  "  and  our 
ignorance  as  to  "  whether  the  scheme  would 
be  revealed  at  once,  or  unfolded  gradually."* 
But,  though  we  are  not  competent  judges  be- 
forehand of  what  course  revelation  ought  to 
take  (as  some  theories  of  inspiration  dictate 
the  terms  of  revelation),  after  the  revelation 
has  followed  a  particular  method  of  develop- 
ment, we  may  discover  some  very  probable 
reasons  for  its  procedure.  We  can  readily 
conceive  some  very  good  reasons  why  this 
truth  of  personal  immortality  should  not  have 
been  pressed  to  the  front  in  the  Mosaic  age. 
It  was  a  hope  overgrown  with  the  ritual  of 


*  Analogy,  P.  II.  Chap.  iii. 


GROWTH  OF  BELIEF  IN  IMMORTALITY.     1 1  5 

Egypt,  and  it  was  imperatively  necessary  for 
the  whole  future  development  of  religion  in 
Israel  that  the  chosen  people  should  be  cut 
loose  from  every  vestige  of  Egyptian  supersti- 
tion. Had  Moses  inscribed  the  word  "  Im- 
mortality "  upon  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  the 
people  very  probably  might  have  remembered 
"  Osiris,"  rather  than  have  feared  Jehovah. 
The  first  duty  of  the  hour  was  to  separate 
from  this  world  "  a  holy  people,"  and  con- 
sequently any  truth  associated  with  idolatry 
it  may  have  been  necessary  to  leave  alone  for 
a  season.  Besides,  an  earthly  society  was  first 
to  be  raised  up  and  secured  as  the  firm  his- 
torical basis  for  all  subsequent  revelation;  and 
in  order  that  the  forces  necessary  to  the  con- 
solidation of  a  peculiar  people  might  have  free 
play,  it  may  have  been  necessary  to  keep  at 
first  other-world  motives  in  reserve.  Nor 
should  it  be  forgotten  that  other  spiritual 
truths  of  reliction  are  first  in  order  before  the 
hope  of  personal  existence  after  death  can 
spontaneously  blossom  forth.  The  sense  of 
the  living  God,  of  personal  communion  with 
him,  and  of  fulness  of  life  only  in  the  presence 
and  favor  of  God,  must  be  gained  before  a 
worthy  and  exalting  hope  of  immortality  can 
spring  up.  Almost  in  proportion  as  the  psalm- 
ists of  Israel  attain  this  sense  of  living  with 
God,  do  they  rise  to  the  joy  of  the  hope  of 


Il6  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

living  forever.  (Ps.  xvi.,  Ixxiii.  23  seq.)  And, 
at  last,  immortality  is  brought  to  light  only 
through  One  who  shows  disciples  the  Father, 
and  leaves  them  in  the  communion  of  the 
Spirit.  The  Bible,  beginning  with  the  funda- 
mental truths  of  spiritual  religion,  ends  in  an 
apocalypse.  We,  certainly,  who  behold  the 
glory  of  the  finished  temple,  have  no  reason  to 
complain  of  the  Providence  that  has  left  some 
darkly-lighted  passages,  and  chilling  shadows, 
in  the  crypt. 

These  illustrations  of  the  progress  of  doc- 
trine in  the  Bible,  in  conformity  with  the  re- 
quirements of  a  divine  method  of  human  edu- 
cation, are  doubtless  sufficient  to  give  us  a 
broader  idea  of  what  revelation  is,  than  is 
commonly  entertained.*  The  Bible  is  a  living 
book.  There  is  movement  and  life  in  it. 
Ideas  grow  in  it.  Truths  blossom  out,  and 
come  to  their  maturity  in  it.  The  purpose  of 
love  ripens,  and  bears  at  last  its  perfect  fruit, 
in   this   sacred   history.     The    Bible  is  not  a 


*  I  have  passed  over  several  illustrations  of  this  educational 
advance  of  revelation,  hand  in  hand  with  the  history,  which 
might  be  easily  gathered,  as,  e.g.^  the  development  of  the  doc- 
trine of  angels,  and  of  the  Satanic  power ;  and,  also  the  growth 
of  the  idea  or  habit  of  prayer,  and  the  new  light  gained  for  the 
whole  conception  of  spiritual  religion  by  the  prophets  of  the 
exile.  The  educational  office  and  work  of  the  types  of  the  Old 
Dispensation,  ought  not  to  be  forgotten  in  this  connection  ;  but 
their  proper  consideration  would  require  more  space  than  cau  be 
allotted  here  to  an  illustration  of  our  general  principle. 


THE  PROCESS   OF  REVELATION.         WJ 

mere  repository  of  tlie  words  of  God,  a  recep- 
tacle of  doctrines,  like  an  apothecary's  shop 
stored  with  the  essences  and  abstractions  of 
the  products  of  nature,  all  labelled  and  ready 
for  use,  according  to  some  favorite  prescrip- 
tion. The  Bible  is  not  an  abstract  of  useful 
doctrines  to  be  administered  by  rule;  it  is 
rather,  like  nature,  full  of  mystery,  and  full 
of  life.  We  can  follow,  as  it  were,  the  whole 
course  of  the  seasons  through  it — the  spring- 
time, the  early  days  of  promise,  the  time  of 
sowing,  and  the  times  of  waiting;  the  days 
when  the  growth  seems  checked,  when  the 
tares  an  enemy  hath  so\vn  multiply ;  the  dark 
days  and  the  stormy,  the  hours  of  hurricane 
and  desolation,  as  well  as  the  days  of  blossom- 
ing and  song ; — and  through  all  its  changes, 
throuo'h  the  lono-  succession  of  its  ao^es,  are  to 
be  discovered  the  steady  advance  and  working 
out  of  one  purpose,  and  the  sure  coming  of 
the  harvest.  And,  like  the  growth  of  nature, 
this  progressive  course  of  revelation,  the  grad- 
ual unfolding  of  its  seed-truths,  and  the  final 
and  glorious  fulfillment  of  its  promise,  are 
phenomena  which  imply  the  operation  of 
higher  laws,  and  greater  forces,  than  the  acts 
or  the  thoughts  of  the  laborers  who  ploughed 
in  hope,  and  scattered  the  seed,  and  looked 
forward,  with  prophetic  expectation,  to  the 
harvest  at  the  end  of  time. 


Il8  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

The  view  whicli  we  have  gained  of  the 
process  of  revelation  lifts  us  at  once  out  of 
many  other  moral  difficulties  which  are  often 
popularly  urged  against  the  authority  of  reve- 
lation, and  which  sometimes  vex  the  hearts  of 
believers.  We  need  hardly  follow  them  here 
farther  into  their  details.  The  faults  of  the 
Old  Testament  are,  as  Herder  said,  the  faults 
of  the  pupil,  not  of  the  teacher.  They  are 
the  necessary  incidents  of  a  course  of  moral 
education ;  they  are  the  unavoidable  limita- 
tions of  a  partial  and  progressive  revelation. 
If  God  chooses  to  enter  upon  a  historic  course 
/,of  revelation,  then  that  revelation  must  be 
accommodated  to  the  necessities,  and  limited 
by  the  capacities,  mental  and  moral,  of  each 
successive  age.  Otherwise,  revelation  would 
be  a  wild,  destructive  power — a  flood  sweep- 
ing everything  away,  and  not  the  river  of  life. 
We  cannot  suppose  that  the  Almighty  can 
pour  the  Mississippi  River  into  the  banks  of  a 
mountain-brook.  He  can  begin,  however,  with 
the  springs  and  the  brooks,  and  make  in  time 
the  broad  Mississippi  River.  We  cannot  ex- 
pect God  to  pour  the  full  Christian  era  into 
the  limited  moral  experience  of  the  patri- 
archal age.  He  may  begin,  however,  Avith 
the  first  welling  up  of  truth  in  far-oif  times, 
to  prepare  for  the  Christian  era.  He  will  not, 
by  a  too  early  flood,  wash  away  the  very  pos- 


THE  PROCESS   OF  REVELATION.         II9 

sibility  of  an  enlarging  revelation.  His  stream 
keej^s  within  its  banks ;  kis  revelation  never 
breaks  tlirougk  the  appointed  limits  of  a  great 
historical  influence.  But  this  patience  of  the 
divine  Teacher  with  man's  slowly  maturing 
capacity  for  instruction,  this  self-restraint  of 
revelation,  is  itself  the  sign  of  a  higher  wis- 
dom. It  would  have  been  like  us  to  have  hur- 
ried an  Elijah  on  into  a  John  the  Baptist;  to 
have  spoiled  Moses  by  making  him  into  a 
Paul ;  we  should  have  had  no  place  or  patience 
for  the  conservative  life  and  the  partial  truth 
of  an  apostle  like  James,  between  Judaism  and 
a  full-grown  Christianity.  But  with  the  Divine 
Instructor  a  thousand  years  are  as  one  day. 
His  unit  of  time  is  not  the  short  axis  of  a  re- 
volving world,  and  his  good  providence  puts 
no  blessing  in  peril  by  unseemly  haste.  These 
very  limitations,  imperfections,  and  moral  de- 
ficiencies of  particular  stages  of  revelation,  so 
often  alleo^ed  ao^ainst  the  Bible,  are  anion g^  the 
signs  which  cannot  be  counterfeited  of  God's 
handwriting  in  it.  The  same  powers  of  de- 
velopment, the  same  law  of  evolution,  seem  to 
have  been  followed,  alike,  in  nature  and  in  the 
Bible.  The  Koran  is  like  a  world  made  all  at 
once,  in  the  six  literal  days  of  some  theolo- 
gians. The  Bible  resembles  a  world  that  has 
been  long  in  growing,  and  which  may  well  be 
pronounced  good  when  it  is  done. 


I20  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

In  general,  then,  it  may  be  remarked  of 
many  moral  difficulties  accompanying  a  pro- 
gressive revelation,  wliicli  our  limits  will  not 
permit  us  to  consider  more  specifically,  that 
an  earnest,  true,  moral  purpose  must  use,  at 
one  stage  of  history,  at  some  points  in  its 
progress,  a  certain  roughness  of  procedure,  a 
severity,  at  least,  of  judgment,  which  would 
neither  be  necessary  nor  allowable  at  another 
time,  or  in  a  more  advanced  era.  Into  the 
great  mass  of  human  ignorance  and  idolatry, 
God  causes,  in  the  call  of  Abraham,  the  sharp 
edge  of  his  good  purpose  to  enter ;  hard  blows 
must  be  dealt  to  drive  that  thickeninor  wedo-e 
in  ;  and  pj'ovidence  is  too  divinely  in  earnest, 
in  its  work  of  driving  that  wedge  of  Hebrew 
history  into  the  tough  resistance  of  mankind, 
to  spare,  when  needed,  strong,  sharp,  decisive 
strokes.  Many  vigorous  pi'ovidences  were 
necessary  and  right  in  the  divine  order  of  his- 
tory, as  were  the  blows  of  the  pioneer's  axe 
and  the  smoke  of  his  fires,  when  the  forests 
were  to  be  cleared  and  the  wilderness  made 
habitable.  Moses  and  the  judges,  and  the 
i:)rophets,  even,  were  God's  chosen  pioneers; 
and  theirs  was  the  rough,  hard  work  of  his- 
tory. How  much  suffering  and  hardship  does 
not  nature  relentlessly  compel  in  the  pioneer 
ao-e !  The  necessities  of  the  times  determine 
the  rights  and  the  truths  which  must  be  made 


MORAL  DIFFICUL  TIES  IN  EARL  Y  A  GES.   1 2 1 

paramount  and  commanding.  Thus,  the  right 
of  the  individual  to  life  is  an  undeniable  prin- 
ciple of  morality ;  but,  at  times,  the  right  of 
a  race  to  its  redemption  may  be  more  sacred. 
The  rights  of  every  individual  Ammonite  and 
Canaanite,  slain  by  the  children  of  Israel  in 
execution  of  a  divine  mission,  a  just  God 
cannot  in  the  final  judgment  despise;  but  the 
right  of  the  world  to  the  coming  of  the  king- 
dom of  righteousness  and  peace  may,  at  any 
parti(^ular  crisis  of  history,  outweigh  all  con- 
sideration of  individuals  in  the  scale  of  a  just 
providence.  Moreover,  it  should  not  be  for- 
gotten that  the  individual,  wlio  for  the  moment 
may  be  sacrificed  for  the  good  of  the  whole, 
has  himself  an  immortality,  in  which  the  very 
good  for  which  he  was  destroyed  may  return 
upon  him  in  blessing.  The  stern,  temporal 
measures  sanctioned  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the 
Bible  cannot  be  fairly  judged  except  in  the 
light  of  immortality  thrown  upon  all  the  ine- 
qualities of  human  life  by  the  finished  Bible. 
Indeed,  the  very  conception  of  a  divine  educa- 
tion of  the  race  requires  for  its  completion  the 
thought  of  a  future  in  which  the  final  bless- 
ing  shall  be  imparted  to  all  who  have  passed 
away  before  its  coming.  All  who  at  any  stage 
of  the  process  contributed  to  the  result,  or 
Avho  have  been,  under  temporal  exigencies, 
severely  used  by  the  course  of  Providence, 
6 


122  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

have  their  recompense  in  the  final  issue. 
Hence,  we  are  never  envious  of  the  future,  of 
coming  days  of  greater  good,  because  the 
future,  too,  as  well  as  the  past,  is  for  all  who 
fulfil  aright  their  present  part.  The  end  of 
the  world- age  is  for  all  the  generations  of 
man.* 

Thus  the  revel ator  sees  the  kings  of  the 
earth  bringing  the  honor  and  glory  of  the 
nations  into  the  gate  of  the  celestial  city. 
The  end  of  time  is  the  blessincr  of  that  Messi- 
anic  kingdom  of  which  all  the  ages  are  the 
heirs.  One  would  need,  therefore,  a  view 
comprehensive  both  of  the  past  and  its  exigen- 
cies, and  the  future  and  the  final  good,  before 
one  would  be  qualified  to  sit  in  judgment 
upon  the  public  justice  of  Jehovah.  The  fact 
of  history  which  does  lie  within  our  compre- 
hension, is  the  fact  that  through  it,  and  especi- 
ally by  means  of  the  chosen  people,  a  great 
moral  purpose  of  human  redemption  has  been 
pushed  steadily  forward,  and  with  the  stern 
mercy,  at  times,  of  nature's  own  laws  of  de- 
velopment. 

We  have  thus  far  taken  no  notice  of  the 


*  See  Lotze  :  Mikrokosmus,  iii. ,  pp.  50-53.  The  difference  be- 
tween this  philosophy  of  history  as  a  real  working  out  of  good — 
a  process  of  human  education  whose  fruits  shall  be  at  last  for  all 
generations — and  the  emptiness  of  the  Hegelian  thought- process, 
or  any  purely  idealistic  conception,  is  at  once  apparent. 


FINAL  MORALITY  OF  THE  BIBLE.        I  23 

significant  fact  that  it  is  to  the  Bible  itself  we 
owe  our  own  power  of  judging  the  Bible.  The 
hard  places  in  the  Old  Testament  are  revealed 
by  the  increasing  light  of  the  Bible  itself. 
The  Bible  is  its  own  commentary  and  correc- 
tive. When  that  which  is  perfect  is  come, 
that  which  is  in  part  of  itself  falls  away  from 
the  divine  law.  This  very  fact  that  we  are 
able  to  judge  the  imperfections  of  the  Old  Dis- 
pensation by  a  more  advanced  standard,  shows 
how  effectually  through  all  those  ages  of 
patient  education  the  Spirit  of  Truth  has  pur- 
sued its  work.  The  conclusive  logic  of  facts 
shows  that  the  divine  policy  of  revelation  has 
been  successful.  The  real  morality  of  the 
Bible  is  its  final  morality,  the  morality  in  the  ^ 
intention  of  the  Lawgiver  from  the  beginning."^ 
The  divineness  of  the  whole  process  is  evident 
from  the  very  fact  that  it  has  taken  place. 
Other  nations  "  ended  as  they  began ;  "  no 
other  ancient  system  of  law  and  religion  had  in 
itself  a  principle  of  development,  a  construc- 
tive force,  the  power  of  passing  on  to  perfection. 
In  its  very  evolution  we  have  a  sign  of  the 
supernatural  life  in  the  religion  of  Israel. 
There  is  the  continuity  of  a  divine  purpose 
here. 

One  other  remarkable  feature  of  the  Bible, 


X 


*  See  Mozley's  fine  lecture  on  "  The  End  the  Test  of  a  Pro- 
gressive Revelation." 


124  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

throughout,  which  indicates  the  continuous 
purpose  and  wisdom  of  a  Divine  Teacher  in 
it,  remains  to  be  more  distinctly  noticed.  Our 
view  of  the  educational  worth,  and  the  peda- 
gogical purport  of  Scripture,  would  be  incom- 
plete, did  we  not  at  least  point  out  this  char- 
acteristic in  passing.  We  refer  to  the  limits 
of  the  extent  of  revelation.  The  silence  of 
Scripture  is  often  one  of  the  most  superhuman 
characteristics  of  it.  Not  only,  as  we  have 
shown,  was  the  Bible,  in  the  process  of  its  for- 
mation from  age  to  age,  adapted  to  the  recep- 
tive capacity  of  those  to  whom  the  word  of 
God  came — the  commandment,  as  Augustine 
finely  said,  being  in  accordance  with  the  heart 
of  him  to  whom  it  was  given — but  also  the 
Bible  as  a  whole,  in  what  it  reveals  and  in 
what  it  does  not  reveal,  is  adjusted  to  the 
limits  of  the  powers,  and  the  moral  necessities, 
of  mankind.  The  light  of  revelation  seems 
adapted  to  the  eye  of  the  human  understand- 
ing in  a  manner  so  remarkable  as  to  indicate 
a  higher  wisdom  as  the  author  of  both. 
False  prophets  never  know  where  to  stop. 
Mahomet  and  Swedenborg  know  too  much. 
But  something  seems  to  have  laid  a  restraint 
upon  prophets  and  apostles,  and  to  have 
sobered  them  even  in  the  midst  of  supernal 
revelations.  Thei'e  is  a  more  than  human 
wisdom   in  the   silence  of   the    Bible.     It   is 


THE  MORAL  LIMITS  OF  REVELATION,     1 25 

divine  as  the  silence  of  nature.  Of  the  being 
and  purposes  of  God,  of  the  unseen  world  and 
its  retributions,  enough  is  revealed  to  us  for 
the  motives  and  duties  of  the  present  life  ;  but 
little  or  nothing  to  gratify  curiosity.  There 
is  enough  of  both  Heaven  and  Hell  revealed 
for  all  practical  purposes  now,  but  nothing  for 
merely  imaginative  or  speculative  uses.  Reve- 
lation is  limited  by  the  moral  ends  of  a  system  of 
education  and  trial ;  and  in  that  adaptation  of 
it  appears  again  the  thoughtful  provision  of 
the  schoolmaster.  Everything  here  seems  to 
be  fitted  up  to  make  this  world  a  scene  of  dis- 
cipline and  moral  education  for  us.  Life  is  a 
school,  we  say,  and  from  it  only  the  suicide 
can  play  truant.  A  genuine  message,  then, 
from  the  author  of  nature  might  be  expected 
to  conform  to  the  disciplinary  or  pedagogical 
purport  of  the  present  system  of  things.  Pre- 
cisely such  a  revelation  we  find  the  Bible  as  a 
whole  to  be.  It  is  fitted  wisely  to  the  purpose 
of  forming  character.  It  is  a  revelation  clear 
enough  to  render  faith  possible,  and  obscure 
enough  to  leave  unbelief  possible.  It  affords 
thus  a  trial  or  test  of  character.  It  searches 
the  heart.  Too  bright  as  well  as  too  dark  a 
revelation  might  defeat  the  very  end  of  revel- 
ation. It  would  bring  the  educational  and 
probationary  period  of  life  to  a  close ;  it 
would  bring  on  the  day  of  judgment.     The 


I  26  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

very  difficulties  and  limitations  of  revelation 
are  adapted,  also,  to  the  conditions  of  moral 
growth.  It  requires,  and  it  repays,  toil.  It 
tasks,  and  tries,  and  puzzles,  and  strengthens 
faith.  It  is  like  man  to  make  everything 
regular,  easy,  and  plain  ;  but  that  is  not  like 
the  God  of  nature,  of  history,  or  of  the  Bible. 
A  revelation  in  which  the  way  never  could  be 
missed  ;  a  revelation  made  level  and  smooth  to 
our  feet,  would  be  like  the  work  of  man,  but  not 
like  the  builder  of  the  mountains.  Were  there 
no  Alps  for  men  to  climb  ;  no  ocean  depths  be- 
neath the  plummet's  reach  ;  no  stars  still  unre- 
solved; no  Scylla  and  Charybdis  waiting  to 
catch  up  the  unskilful  voyager;  no  burdens 
of  toil  and  sorrow  laid  upon  our  manhood ;  if 
this  life  were  only  the  play  of  children,  and 
all  the  days  were  sunshine :  then,  indeed, 
might  we  expect  to  find  a  Bible  without  diffi- 
culties ;  a  Gospel  without  j)arables ;  a  king- 
dom of  truth  without  tasks  for  the  athlete, 
and  without  rewards  for  the  victor.  But  the 
God  of  nature,  of  history,  and  of  the  Bible, 
surely  does  not  intend  to  people  his  heaven 
with  a  race  of  moral  imbeciles.  "  To  him  that 
overcometh,"  is  the  promise — seven  times  re- 
located— of  the. crown  of  life. 

Our  whole  discussion,  then,  of  the  morality 
of  the  Bible,  is  summed  up  in  the  conclusion 
that   the  development  of   the  Bible  has  fol- 


SUPERNATURAL  DEVELOPMENT.         12/ 

lowed  a  beneficent  moral  purpose.  We  have 
given  reasons  for  the  belief,  that  in  its  growth, 
its  historical  influence,  its  unfolding  of  truth, 
and  its  limitations,  the  Bible  follows  the  moral 
order  of  the  God  of  history ;  flows  with  his 
purpose,  and  works  out  his  design  of  redemp- 
tion. The  whole  moral  development  of  reve- 
lation, often  against  nature,  across  the  grain 
of  Israel,  and  in  spite  of  all  opposing  forces, 
is  to  us  an  evidence  of  a  higher  than  a  merely 
natural  revelation  ;  it  bears  witness  of  a  su- 
pernatural course  of  history. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    GROWTH    OF     KNOWLEDGE     AND    SCIENTIFIO 
TENDENCY    OF    THE    BIBLE. 

But  does  not  our  conclusion  leap  too  lightly 
over  the  scientific  difficulties  which  have  been 
heaped  up  against  the  Bible  ?  How  could  a 
God  of  truth,  it  is  asked,  inspire  a  revelation 
which  did  not  give  the  world  a  proper  science 
of  the  creation,  or,  at  least,  which  taught  a 
very  imperfect  scientific  conception  of  things  ? 
Moses  should  have  had  Herbert  Spencer  at 
his  elbow,  to  have  been  an  infallible  guide  to 
the  laws  of  the  creation ;  and  the  prophets 
would  have  been  improved  by  a  scientific 
course  in  connection  with  their  theological 
schooling.  If  God's  object  had  been  to 
give,  ready  made,  an  infallible  .book  contain- 
ing, without  error,  all  truth  which  man  can 
know;  Moses  and  the  prophets,  certainly, 
needed  an  enlightenment  Avhich  they  never 
received;  and  their  inspiration  has  failed  to 
give  us  a  perfect  and  systematic  epitome  of 
the  universe  in  our  Bibles.  We  do  not  care 
to    argue,  however,  concerning   an   imaginary 


SCIENTIFIC  TENDENCY  OF  THE  BIBLE.     I  29 

Bible.  Our  concern  is  to  discover  wliat  God 
has  done.  The  same  broad,  historical  method 
of  studying  revelation  which  we  applied  in 
the  last  chapter  to  its  moral  contents  and  in- 
tention, we  have  now  to  apply  to  the  scien- 
tific teaching  and  tendency  of  the  Bible.  Did 
the  course  of  revelation,  as  we  can  trace  it 
through  the  Bible,  lend  its  impulse  to,  and 
help  on,  man's  progress  in  knowledge,  as  it 
plainly  has  his  growth  in  virtue  ?  Does  the 
Bible  form,  thus,  on  its  scientific  side,  as  well 
as  its  moral,  a  well-fitted  part  of  the  whole 
plan  of  a  benevolent  God  for  the  education 
and  redemption  of  the  world?  We  have  to 
do  with  a  greater  question  than  the  interpre- 
tation or  meaning  of  any  single  passage  of 
Scripture.  We  are  seeking  for  the  main  cur- 
rent of  the  stream,  and  its  real  direction ;  and 
we  are  not  much  concerned  with  the  momen- 
tary whirls  or  eddies.  We  have  to  deter- 
mine, in  their  relation  to  the  growth  of  man 
in  knowledge,  the  real  tendency  and  the  final 
outcome  of  revelation.  We  must  weigh  care- 
fully the  influence  of  successive  Scriptures 
upon  the  science  of  their  own  times,  as  well 
as  estimate  fairly  the  proper  relation  of  the 
finished  Bible  to  subsequent  scientific  prog- 
ress, and  the  position  of  the  whole  revelation 
toward  the  result  of  modern  investigations. 
But  to  put  the  question  in  this  way — the  fair 
6* 


130  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

and  reverent  way  of  stating  it — lifts  ns  at 
once  out  of  much  controversial  literature,  and 
opens  a  larger  and  more  fruitful  field  of  in- 
quiry than  religious  and  scientific  controver- 
sialists usually  enter. 

We  must  bear  in  mind  the  caution  already 
given  (p.  32),  as  we  attempt  this  inquiry. 
While  it  is  true  that  our  interpretations  of 
Scripture  may  be  traditional,  it  is  also  true 
that  much  science  is  still  only  presumptive 
knowledge.  Some  theories  advanced  by  com- 
petent scientists  remind  us  of  the  dotted  lines 
on  our  maps,  where  it  is  expected  railroads 
will  soon  be  laid,  or  existing  lines  will  be  pro- 
longed. Time  may  see  them  completed ;  and 
it  may  see  them  built  with  important  devia- 
tions from  the  projected  course. 

Our  larger  question  with  regard  to  the  Bible 
and  science  involves  two  distinct  inquiries ; 
first,  What  are  the  historical  facts  as  to  the 
scientific  teachinsrs  and  tendencies  of  the 
Bible?  and,  secondly.  How  do  these  facts 
agree  with  God's  method  of  human  education, 
and  the  progress  of  man  in  knowledge  up  to 
the  present  conclusions  of  modern  science  ?  It 
will  be  convenient  for  us,  however,  and  will 
prevent  needless  repetition,  to  blend  these  ques- 
tions somewhat  in  the  course  of  our  reasoning, 
and  to  bring  them  both  out  together  in  our 
conclusion. 


FREED  OM  FR  OM  NA  TURE-M  YTHS.       1 3  I 

We  notice,  at  the  outset,  one  general  char- 
acteristic of  the  biblical  revelation,  which  has 
not  had  justice  done  it  by  many  who  re- 
ject, at  first  sight,  the  Mosaic  account  of  the 
creation.  The  fact  is  that  the  Bible  had  in 
the  beginning,  and  preserved  throughout  its 
whole  development,  one  great  scientific  virtue. 
The  biblical  view  of  nature  is  singularly  free 
from  the  mythological  and  superstitious  con- 
ceptions of  nature  prevalent  in  antiquity.  It 
is  kept,  in  this  respect,  from  one  fatal  defect  of 
other  early  religious  literature.  It  possesses, 
from  the  start,  a  virtue  which  made  it  capable 
of  growth.  The  multitudinous  personifications 
of  other  primitive  religious  traditions,  and 
sacred  hymns,  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  book 
of  Genesis.  Here  is  a  variation  from  the  pre- 
vailing type  of  religious  tradition ;  here  is  a 
S2?ecifiG  mark  upon  our  Bible,  at  its  earliest 
appearance,  which  we  are  at  a  loss  to  explain 
when  we  consider  the  historical  environment 
amid  which  it  sprang  up.  We  have  here  a 
literary  phenomenon  certainly  as  remarkable, 
not  to  say  miraculous,  as  would  have  been  the 
appearance  of  man  walking  erect  among  the 
creeping  things  of  the  Mesozoic  period.  The 
contrast  between  the  Chaldean  Genesis,  and  our 
Genesis,  is  as  marked  as  the  difference  between 
the  "  Miltonic  conception,"  and  Prof.  Huxley's 
"  American  Addresses."     The  one   could  not 


132  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

have  been  the  natural  parent  of  the  other. 
Prof.  Smith's  "  Chaldean  Genesis  "  is  sufficient 
to  represent  the  historical  environment  of  the 
biblical  tradition.  It  enables  us  to  reproduce 
the  historical  conditions,  in  the  midst  of  which 
the  patriarchal  interpretation  of  nature,  pre- 
served in  our  Bible,  was  born  and  grew  up. 
But  while  these  Assyrian  tablets  lend  valuable 
historical  confirmation,  at  some  points,  to  the 
Scriptural  tradition,  and  cast  a  useful  cross- 
light  over  the  Book  of  Genesis;  and  while 
they  bear  traces  of  their  own  descent  from 
some  purer  and  more  ancient  source  ;  still,  in 
a  scientific  point  of  view,  they  are  as  remote 
from  the  simplicity  of  the  biblical  conception 
of  nature,  as  the  science  of  our  day  is  beyond 
the  discussions  in  natural  history  which  Plu- 
tarch used  to  carry  on  with  his  friends. 

But,  if  Abraham  did  not  bring  this  pure 
song  of  the  Creation  from  the  mythology  of 
Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  may  not  Moses  have 
found  it  in  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians? 
But  here,  also,  the  contrasts  go  deeper  than 
the  resemblances.  The  study  of  Egyptology 
indeed,  seems  to  be  an  inquiry  in  which  the 
best  scholars  may  find  their  judgments  con- 
fused, and  widely  varying  estimates  of  inter- 
vals of  time,  as  well  as  of  the  nature  of  great 
dynasties,  are  entertained  ;  as  travellers  often 
find  their  sense  of  distance  deceptive  in  the 


FREEDOM  FROM  NATURE-MYTHS.       133 

peculiar  air,  and  across  the  dry  sands,  of  tlie 
Egyptian  deserts.  Enough,  however,  has 
been  measured,  with  some  degree  of  historical 
accuracy,  by  Egyptologists,  to  enable  us  to 
judge  how  great  was  the  divergence  of  the 
monotheism  of  the  Pentateuch,  not  only  from 
the  popular  idolatry  of  the  Egyptians,  but  also 
from  the  shadowy  belief  in  the  unity  of  the 
Godhead,  which  lay  in  the  wisdom  of  the 
priests  behind  the  polytheistic  worship  of  the 
people.  Ewald  is  of  the  opinion  that  the 
Egyptian  culture  must  ultimately  have  re- 
pelled rather  than  attracted  Moses.*  Even 
the  rationalistic  Kuenen  decidedly  rejects  the 
possibility  of  an  Egyptian  origin  for  the  Javeh- 
ism  of  Moses,  f 

The  striking  contrast  between   Moses  and 


*  History  of  Israel,  ii.,  pp.  55,  56. 

f  Religion  of  Israel,  vol.  i.,  pp.  276-78.  *'  His  one  God  stood 
outside  of  nature,  as  its  creator  and  Lord ;  not  so  the  deity  of 
the  Egyptian  priests,  etc."  Brugsch-Bei  (Geschichte  Aegyptens, 
8.  25)  inclines  to  the  opinion  that  Moses'  doctrines  were  formed 
after  the  models  of  Egyptian  wise  men ;  but,  'per  contra^  he  also 
states  (Ibid.,  pp.  551-52),  that  the  influence  of  the  Semitic-Asiatic 
hostages  and  captives  made  itself  ever  more  predominant  in  the 
conception  of  God,  custom,  and  speech,  of  Egypt,  "  The  young 
Egyptian  world,  overshadowed  by  the  traditions  of  centuries  of  a 
long-vanished  past,  found,  to  its  taste,  the  fresh  living  power  of 
the  Semitic  spirit,  to  which  another  far  more  attractive  idea  of 
the  world  gave  a  direction  forward."  Compare,  also,  R.  Stuart- 
Poole,  Contemporary  Review,  March,  1879,  p.  757:  "The  docu- 
ments on  both  sides,  do  not,  however,  warrant  the  supposition 
that  Hebrew  monotheism  had  its  origin  in  this  esoteric  Egyptian 
conception." 


134  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

the  magicians  of  Pharaoh,  as  portrayed  in 
the  Book  of  Exodus,  we  must  admit  to  be  a 
true  historical  picture  of  the  opposition  be- 
tween two  religions.  We  have  then,  in  the 
biblical  account  of  the  creation,  a  tradition 
maintaining  itself,  and  its  own  purity,  against 
its  immediate  historical  surroundings.  What- 
ever may  have  been  its  source,  in  its  continu- 
ous contrast  with  the  nature- worship  and  my- 
thologies through  which  it  flowed,  it  is  singu- 
larly pure  and  refreshing.  Its  scientific  virtue, 
in  comparison  with  the  literature  of  its  own 
age,  deserves  prominent  mention  in  any  fair 
judgment  of  the  relation  of  the  Bible  to  science. 
One  illustration  of  this  scientific  freedom  of 
the  earliest  Scriptures  from  the  superstitious 
conceptions  of  the  powers  of  nature,  univers- 
ally prevalent  in  primitive  ages,  may  be  drawn 
from  its  teaching  with  regard  to  the  atmos- 
phere and  atmospheric  phenomena.  Princi- 
pal Dawson,  who  has  noticed  this  peculiarity 
of  our  Genesis,  justly  remarks  that  "  the 
greatest  gods  of  all  the  ancient  nations  are 
weather  gods,  rulers  of  the  atmospheric  hea- 
vens ;  "  *  and  Max  Miiller  has  made  us  fam- 
iliar with  the  ancient  habit  of  using  the 
more  striking  phenomena  of  the  sky  to  sym- 
bolize the  religious  sentiments  of  the  Aryan 


*  Origin  of  the  World,  p.  171. 


FREEDOM  FROM  NATURE-MYTHS.       1 35 

race.     The  disposition  to  deify  the  elemental 
foi-ces   is  to  be  traced  through  all  the  "  wild 
grown   religions."     But   this   thoroughly  un- 
scientific and    superstitious  tendency  of    the 
Gentile  religions  was  resisted  by  the  course  of 
revelation  from  the  beginning ;  and  the   my- 
thologies of  the  air  never  became  a  permanent 
part  of  the  Scriptures  of  Israel.     The  Bible 
never  became  hopelessly  involved  in  this  course 
of  superstition ;  never  in  its  poetry,  even,  be- 
came entangled  in  that  glittering  mythology 
in  whose  attractive,  but  fatal,  meshes  the  relig- 
ious spirit,  and  the  poetic  genius,  of  antiquity 
were  caught  and  bound.     The  very  names  for 
God,  which  one  after  another  became  fixed  in 
Israel,  and  which  mark  the  rising  tides  of  its 
deep  religious  experience,  are  not  the  names  for 
objects  in  nature,  like  the  many  names  for  the 
Deity  in  the  Egyptian  worship,  or  the  endless 
personificatioDs  of  the  Vedas.     To  the  Hebrew 
poets  and  prophets,  even  the  winds  of  heaven 
are  sent  forth  by  Jehovah  to  do  his  wall ;  and 
they  see  everywhere,  and  in  all  the  changing 
elements,  the  presence  and  law  of  One  living 
and  supreme  Powder.     As   revelation   is   free, 
throughout  its  course  in  Israel,  from  the  nat- 
ural tendency  of  man  to  personify  and  deify 
extei-nal  objects,  and  elemental  forces,  so,  also, 
no  traces  can  be  found  in  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures of  that  later  scientific  superstition  signi- 


136  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

fied  by  the  very  word  "  Nature,"  under  wliicli 
we  group  all  second  causes,  and  which  we 
sometimes  use  as  though  it  were  not  a  mere 
name,  or  symbol,  but  a  real  existence,  or  cause. 
We  are  not  raising,  at  this  point,  the  question 
as  to  the  presence  of  historical  legends  in  the 
Old  Testament ;  but  we  insist  that  the  com- 
parative and  well-preserved  purity  of  the 
Bible  from  the  mythological  view  of  nature  is 
a  primary  scientific  virtue,  and  that  revela- 
tion furnished  in  this  respect  one  of  the  first 
conditions  of  scientific  education.*  If  we  may 
suppose  the  existence  of  a  Divine  Instructor 
whose  intention  it  was  in  the  course  of  time  to 
open  to  the  knowledge  of  man  the  secrets  of 
the  earth,  and  to  educate  the  world  at  length 
into  a   thorough   conception   of   the  order  of 


*  The  account  of  the  serpent  (Gen.  iii. )  may  be  cited  as  myth- 
ological, and  we  do  not  forget  that  the  negative  critics  find  oc- 
casionally other  signs  of  the  growth  of  nature-myths  in  the  Old 
Testament,  We  are  not  careful,  however,  to  examine  these  al- 
leged mythical  passages  at  length,  inasmuch  as,  even  if  we  should 
yield  far  more  than  we  believe  a  sober  criticism  can  allow,  our 
argument  above  would  still  hold  good.  The  singular  comparative 
freedom  from  mythology  (not  to  say  absolute  freedom)  is  a  most 
original  characteristic  of  the  Bible.  Tayler  Lewis's  Six  Days  of 
Creation,  Chaps.  23  and  24,  argues  forcibly  the  difference  be- 
tween the  Mosaic  Cosmogony  and  all  mythical  accounts  of  the 
creation — and  the  considerations  he  presents  are  not  yet  out  of 
date.  So  Herder  said,  "  How  does  this  picture  of  creation  so  sin- 
gularly distinguish  itself  above  all  the  fables  and  traditions  of 
Upper  Asia  ?  By  connection,  simplicity,  and  truth.  ...  I 
thank  the  philosopher,  therefore,  for  this  bold  amputation  of 
monstrous  ancient  fables."    (Gesch.  der  Menschheit,  x.,  Chap.  6.) 


FREED  OM  FR  OM  NA  TURE-MYTHS.       1 3  7 

nature  ;  tlien  we  may  say  that  lie  gave  one  of 
the  first  conditions  of  that  knowledge,  and 
provided  one  of  the  necessary  preparations  for 
that  future  education,  by  freeing  the  mind  of 
man  from  subjection  to  the  powers  of  nature, 
and  setting  the  human  soul  above  the  world, 
as  itself  made  in  the  divine  image,  and,  in 
short,  by  first  drilling  patiently  the  human 
reason  and  heart  into  those  pure  monotheistic 
conceptions  which  distinguish  the  religion  of 
the  Bible.  The  cruel  bondage  of  this  world 
over  the  heart  of  man  must  be  broken,  before 
science  can  possess,  undisturbed,  its  proper 
field.  The  world  must  be  disenchanted  by  a 
hig;her  faith  before  the  atre  of  science  can  dawn. 
And  exactly  this  necessary  work  for  the  com- 
ing of  the  era  of  knowledge  was  begun  by 
Moses  and  the  prophets.  Indeed  the  law-giver, 
the  prophets,  the  poets,  of  Israel,  stood  in  days 
of  idolatry  nearer  the  fountains  of  a  pure 
science,  and  in  their  descriptions  of  natural 
phenomena  observed  far  better  what  Prof.  Tyn- 
dall  calls  the  laws  of  the  scientific  imagination, 
than  did  the  wise  men  of  Egypt  with  their  in- 
cantations, or  Homer  and  Virgil  with  their 
stories  of  the  gods,  or  even  Dante  and  Milton 
with  their  classic  mythology,  or  the  whole 
brood  of  the  frivolous  court-poets  and  free- 
thinkers hatched  out  in  the  artificial  heats  of 
the  eighteenth  century. 


138  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

But  the  objection  already  may  have  occurred, 
as  we  press  the  scientific  value  of  the  prelimi- 
nary work  accomplished  for  human  education 
by  revelation, — "  Did  not  the  prophets  of  old 
believe  in  miracles,  in  the  possibility  of  the 
sun  standing  still,  in  all  manner  of  su2:)ernatu- 
ral  appearances?  "  Whether  miracles  have, 
or  have  not,  their  appointed  place  and  day  of 
power  in  the  natural  order  and  course  of 
things,  we  need  not  at  this  point  discuss ;  for 
it  is  enough  for  our  present  argument  merely 
to  affirm  that,  whatever  may  have  been  the 
Hebrew  view  of  possible  interpositions  by  the 
hand  of  the  Lord,  they  admitted  no  power  in 
nature  save  the  One  Divine  Will,  and  regarded 
the  creation  as  the  orderly  work  of  the  divine 
hand ;  so  that  their  admission  of  the  super- 
natural did  not,  at  least  in  their  view  of  things, 
destroy,  but,  on  the  contrary,  tended  to  ^^ 
and  to  confirm  their  belief  in  one  all-pervad- 
ing law,  and  one  all-comprehensive  order  and 
kingdom  of  the  Lord  God  Almighty ;  and 
that  faith  kept  their  interpretations  of  nature 
and  history  comparatively  free  from  confus- 
ing and  debasing  superstitions.  The  fact  that 
revelation  caused  in  any  way  the  idea  of  law 
and  order  and  unity  in  the  creation  to  rise  as 
a  majestic  conception  before  men  in  an  early 
mythological  age,  is  the  scientific  merit  of  the 
Scriptures  to  be  observed  and  emphasized.     It 


THE  IDEA    OF  LAW  IN  NATURE.         1 39 

certainly  helped  man  to  a  better  knowledge 
of  nature.  So  far  from  hindering,  it  advanced 
the  scientific  education  of  the  world.  In  Je- 
rusalem itself  aj^peared  the  first  wise  man  of 
antiquity,  of  whom  w^e  have  any  knowledge, 
who  made  a  descriptive  catalogue  of  natural 
history ;  and  his  religion,  and  religious  train- 
ing, were  no  obstacle,  but  rather  an  impulse 
to  him,  in  his  scientific  labor.  The  fear  of  the 
Lord,  exorcising  the  world  of  its  many  gods, 
was  to  the  wise  man  the  beo^innino;  of  his 
knowledge  of  natural  history.  It  is  true  that 
in  modern  history  the  scientific  age  has  been 
Ions:  in  comino;.  But  it  was  not  the  rod  of 
Moses,  or. the  staff  of  the  proj^het,  that  held 
it  back.  Nay,  Moses  and  the  prophets  them- 
selves must  wait  in  modern  history  for  the 
day  of  their  true  understanding  and  right  use. 
The  middle  ages  had  their  own  providential 
calling  and  work.  Much  barbaric  ore  was  to 
be  broken  up  and  fused,  by  the  power  of  the 
Roman  Church,  before  the  modern  nation  and 
the  age  of  freedom  could  emerge.  Only,  we 
cannot  charge  the  long  delay  to  the  account 
of  Moses.  If  the  providential  necessities  of 
the  middle  ages  had  permitted  the  open  habit 
of  mind  toward  nature  cherished  by  the  proph- 
ets, and  their  consuming  zeal  against  every 
form  of  superstition,  to  come  to  their  rights  in 
Rome,  modern  science  might  have  been  several 


I40  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

hundred  years  older  tlian  it  is.  Moses  might, 
indeed,  have  been  wroth  against  a  pagan  and 
superstitious  art.  Elijah  might  have  called 
down  fire  from  heaven  upon  a  corrupt  Pope ; 
but  neither  Hebrew  lawgiver,  nor  prophet, 
would  have  forbidden  Galileo  to  search  the 
heavens  which  declare  God's  glory,  or  have 
bound  the  commandments  of  the  Lord  as  fet- 
ters around  the  advancing  feet  of  that  knowl- 
edge which,  in  the  latter  days,  they  expected 
should  be  increased  when  many  should  run  to 
and  fro.* 

This  view  of  the  real  tendency  of  the  Bible 
toward  an  enlarging  knowledge,  and  in  favor 
of  a  growing  science,  is  confirmed  by  another 
general  characteristic  of  the  Scriptures  which 
has  not  usually  had  justice  done  it  by  writers 
upon  the  warfare  of  science  and  religion.  We 
find  that  the  inspired  writers  possessed,  in  a 
surprising  degree,  a  second  essential  scientific 
habit  of  mind — that  of  accurate  observation  of 
natural  phenomena.  The  absence  of  supersti- 
tious fear  gave  them  calmness  and  repose  of 
mind  in  the  midst  of  great  natural  phenomena. 
Their  belief  in  the  One  God  saved  them  from 
fear  in  view  of  the  more  terrible  aspects  of 
nature.  They  did  not  tremble  before  a  host 
of  nature-gods,  and  90  they  could  become  good 


♦  Daniel,  xii.  4. 


OPTICAL  ACCURACY  OF  THE  BIBLE.      I4I 

observers.  This  primary  scientific  virtue  of 
optical  accuracy  distinguishes  the  Old  Testa- 
ment,from  all  other  literature  contemporane- 
ous with  it.  The  Oriental  mind  is  not  natu- 
rally exact;  it  abounds  in  extravagance  of 
metaphor,  and  luxuriates  in  dreams.  But, 
where  in  the  Bible  can  a  fanciful  line  of  poetic 
description  be  found?  Job,  in  his  loftiest 
imagery,  indulges  in  no  extravagant  characteri- 
zation of  nature.  The  laws  of  the  scientific 
imagination  are  obeyed  in  these  inspired  Scrip- 
tures. One  marked  and  frequently  recurring 
feature  of  Hebrew  poetry,  as  Principal  Daw- 
son has  observed,  is  its  sobriety  and  optical 
accuracy.*  The  present  Professor  of  Poetry 
at  Oxford  asserts  only  what  a  comparison  of 
the  early  religious  writings  of  mankind  would 
abundantly  prove,  when  he  says :  *'  The  accu- 
racy of  the  Bible  descriptions  of  these  things 
is  quite  unexampled  in  other  literature."  f  In 
this  respect  there  has  been  an  immense  amount 
of  hasty  injustice  done  to  the  Bible.  We 
have  been  too  ready  to  take  it  for  granted  that 
the  descriptive  language  of  the  Bible  was 
accommodated  to  the  erroneous  conceptions 
of  natural  objects  common  in  classical  speech. 
"  Will  it  be  believed,"  says  Principal  Dawson,  J 

*  Origin  of  the  World,  p.  59,  seq. 

f  Shairp:  Poetic  Interpretation  of  Nature,  p.  140. 

tibid.,  p.  62. 


142  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

"  that,  witli  the  exception  of  the  poetical 
phrase,  ^  windows  of  heaven,'  and  the  common 
forms  of  speech  relating  to  sunrise  and  sunset, 
these  instances  of  accommodation  have  no 
foundation  whatever  in  the  language  of  Scrip- 
ture. It  is  said  that  among  modern  poets 
William  Wordsworth  has  made  not  a  single 
mistake  in  the  description  of  natural  objects. 
When  we  reflect  how  far  astray  from  nature 
literature  is  apt  to  wander  ;  how  far  from  the 
simple  truth  of  things  poetry  often  has  de- 
parted ;  the  accuracy  and  natural  realism  of  the 
Old  Testament  descriptions  j)resent  a  marked 
literary  phenomenon;  and  some  cause  of  it 
must  be  sought  in  the  peculiar  training  of  the 
chosen  people.  Here,  also,  amid  the  maze  of 
idolatrous  myths,  we  may  find  a  thread  by 
which  we  may  be  led  to  the  truth  of  a  self- 
revealing  God  in  Israel,  whose  inspiration 
made  the  Hebrew  poets  truthful  to  a  rare 
degree  when  they  looked  upon  his  works. 

These  more  general  reflections  concerning 
the  scientific  influence  and  worth  of  the  Bible, 
as  estimated  from  an  educational  point  of 
view,  may  enable  us  to  approach,  in  a  truer 
spirit,  that  particular  passage  of  Scripture 
which,  it  is  claimed,  has  been  dethroned  by 
modern  science — the  first  chapter  of  Genesis. 
We  have  to  view  that  chapter  in  the  same  his- 
torical light,  and  to  inquire  what  was  its  fit- 


GENESIS  A   FIRST  LESSON.  1 43 

ness  for  the  work  given  it  by  the  Divine 
Teacher  to  do,  and  how  successfully  has  it  ac- 
complished that  work.  Was  it  by  its  natui'e 
and  scope,  its  position  and  limitations,  a  true 
opening  lesson,  a  wise  "first  step  in  a  course  of 
revelation  and  education  intended  to  be  con- 
tinued from  age  to  age  ?  It  will  readily  be 
granted  that  in  the  opening  chapter  the  key- 
note is  struck  of  the  whole  biblical  philoso- 
phy of  nature.  The  elementary  truths  of  the 
creation  tauo-ht  in  it  lie  at  the  basis  of  the 
whole  biblical  interpretation  of  nature.  If 
the  poetry  of  the  sacred  Scripture  is  free  from 
nature-myths,  and  the  vision  of  the  prophets 
undisturbed  by  the  apparition  of  gods  in  the 
successive  phenomena  of  nature,  and  if,  conse- 
quently, the  natural  history  of  the  Bible  is  re- 
markably truthful  and  accurate,  when  con- 
trasted with  the  allegorical  representations  of 
other  contemporaneous  literature — like  the 
uncouth  forms,  half  animal  and  half  human, 
the  eagle-headed  and  scorpion-men,  and  other 
monstrosities  of  the  Assyrian  tablets ; — then, 
the  source  of  this  singular  scientific  virtue  of 
our  Scriptures  is  to  be  traced  back  to  thaj: 
primeval  theology  of  the  creation  which  has 
been  perpetuated  in  the  first  chapter  of  Gene- 
sis. The  whole  marvellously  truthful,  simple, 
and  pure  poetry  of  nature  in  the  Bible  flows 
from  that  ancient  fountain,  and  is  the  continu- 


144  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

ation  of  that  primitive  conception  of  things. 
That  much  controverted  chapter,  therefore, 
should  be  studied  in  connection  w^ith  the  sub- 
sequent literature  of  which  it  is  the  source,  and 
which  is  the  best  commentary  upon  it. 

Our  first  task  in  any  fair  examination  of  the 
scientific  worth  and  tendency  of  this  primeval 
Scripture  should  be  to  determine  what  was  its 
immediate  object,  and  the  point  of  view  which 
the  nature  of  the  lesson  to  be  taught  led  the 
writer  to  take.  The  first  thing  always  to  be 
done  in  criticising  any  work  is  to  gain  the 
author's  point  of  view.  A  mind  destitute  of 
imaginative  sympathy  is  not  fitted  to  be  a  critic. 
The  whole  work  to  be  reviewed  may  lie  in 
confusion  before  us,  if  we  cannot  stand,  in 
judging  it,  where  its  maker  stood  when  he 
looked  upon  it  and  pronounced  it  good.  For 
instance,  to  take  the  first  example  which  occurs 
to  me  from  recent  literature,  John  Ruskin 
counts  it  among  the  good  deeds  of  his  life  that 
he  has  done  justice  to  the  pine.  But  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  botanist,  or  the  nursery- 
man, what  has  Ruskin  done  for  the  pine  ?  He 
has  not  classified  it,  or  made  any  useful  sug- 
gestions as  to  the  proper  way  to  transplant  it, 
and  make  it  grow  in  a  nursery.  The  traveller, 
however,  who  has  ever  seen  thu  Alpine  pines, 
massed  in  dense  regiments  along  the  skirts  of 
some  mountain,  and  throwing  a  line  of  hardy 


OBJECT  OF    THE  FIRST  LESSON.         1 45 

skirmishers  up  souie  seemingly  inaccessible 
height,  will  nuderstand  how  Kiiskin  has  done 
justice  to  the  pines.  Words  that  have  no 
place  in  a  botanical  lecture  may  be  read  with 
delight  along  woodland  paths,  or  among  the 
hills.  Everything,  then,  in  understanding  a 
sacred  Scripture,  depends  upon  our  sympathy 
with  the  author's  aim,  and  our  capacity  to 
look  upon  his  vision  again  as  he  beheld  it, 
with  the  same  backs^round,  in  the  same  sur- 
roundings,  under  the  same  light. 

Eeading,  with  this  object  in  view,  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis,  and  recalling  the  litera- 
ture which  sprang  from  it,  we  shall  hardly  be  at 
a  loss  to  discover  its  leadino^  idea  and  intention. 
We  detect  at  a  glance,  upon  the  surface  of  the 
narrative,  signs  of  a  mnemonic  purpose.*^  It 
was  evidently  arranged  on  purpose  to  be  re- 
membered. The  form  of  the  narrative,  and 
the  succession  of  days,  are  adapted  to  this 
purpose.  It  was  a  first  lesson  made  easy  for 
the  memory.  It  might  readily  be  transmitted 
and  preserved  from  father  to  son.  How  im- 
portant, and  determinative  of  its  form,  this 
necessity  of  suiting  early  teaching  to  the  con- 
venience of  the  memory  must  have  been,  we 
hardly  realize  in  these  days  of  books  and 
printing-presses.     A  more   elaborate    descrip- 


See  Rorifion :  Replies  to  Essays  and  Reviews. 
7 


14^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

tion  of  the  creation,  a  more  detailed  and 
strictly  scientific  classification  of  the  succes- 
sive epochs,  and  the  appearance  of  the  differ- 
ent species  in  the  earth's  history,  might  have 
proved  a  too  burdensome  tradition ;  might 
easily  have  been  broken  into  fragments  in  the 
process  of  transmission ;  might  have  defeated 
the  very  object  for  vrhich  a  primitive  age 
needed  to  preserve  from  father  to  son  a 
simple,  grand  song  of  the  creation.  What 
the  times  did  demand  of  the  divine  Teacher, 
vras  not  a  complete  text-book  of  God's  mani- 
fold works,  but  a  good  religious  primer — a 
primer  of  the  creation  so  clear  and  certain, 
and  easy  to  be  remembered,  that  a  chosen 
people  growing  up  in  the  midst  of  supersti- 
tions and  idolatries,  might  understand  it,  and 
teach  it  to  their  children,  and  by  its  unmis- 
takable meaning  be  saved  from  the  confused 
and  debasing  ideas  of  the  Creator  and  his 
works,  into  which  men  all  around  them  were 
falling.  Now  no  other  people  had  such  a  re- 
ligious and  scientific  primer  as  this.  Indeed, 
it  would  be  hardly  possible  for  any  scientific 
teacher  at  the  present  day  to  invent  a  more 
suitable  form  for  introducing  a  child  into 
some  knowledge  of  the  successive  epochs  of 
the  formation  of  our  world,  than  that  actually 
hit  upon  in  this  ancient  instruction — the  very 
simple  method  of  dividing  the  whole  process 


OBJECT  OF   THE  FIRST  LESSON.        147 

into  tlie  great  days  of  the  creative  week. 
With  the  child's  advancing  intelligence  and 
capacity,  this  scheme  of  instruction,  this  nomi- 
nal scale  of  the  creation,  would  not  have  to  be 
thrown  aside,  but  only  enlarged,  and  the  de- 
tails of  the  whole  process  taught.  Compare 
this  sacred  primer  of  the  creation  with  the 
traditions  in  the  midst  of  which  it  was  given 
and  handed  down,  and  it  certainly  is  a  very 
striking  literary  phenomenon.  If  we  are  not 
ready  to  adopt  the  old  explanation  of  it  that 
its  author  was  inspired,  we  must,  at  least,  ad- 
mit that  he  had  a  wonderful  genius  for  teach- 
inor.  He  was  centuries  in  advance  of  his  ao^e. 
But  the  stern  laws  of  heredity  permit  no 
genius  to  be  born  a  century  too  soon.  Even 
Shakespeare  was  unmistakably  an  Englishman 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  What,  then,  was 
the  far-seeing  Power,  and  whose  was  the  in- 
spiring Spirit,  that  gave  to  the  childhood  of 
the  Hebrew  nation  this  simple,  pure,  endur- 
ing story  of  the  creation  ? — a  lesson  in  the 
origin  and  growth  of  things  so  far  in  advance 
of  its  times,  so  comprehensive  and  true  to 
man's  growing  knowledge,  that  not  until  a 
few  years  ago  did  men  ever  think  of  putting 
it  aside,  and  that  it  remains,  even  to  this  day, 
an  influence  and  power  in  the  world's  latest 
literature  ? 

But,  more  specifically,  besides  this  apparent 


148  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

mnemonic  purpose,  the  point  of  view  occupied 
by  the  biblical  account  of  the  creation  is  dis- 
tinctively religious.  The  primary  ol)ject  is  to 
impress  upon  minds  sadly  in  need  of  knowl- 
edo^e  of  the  one  God,  a  true,  relio^ious  view  of 
nature.  So  far  as  a  natural  history  of  the 
creation  is  called  for  by  that  jmramount  ob- 
ject, it  is  given;  but  the  immediate  and  dis- 
tinctive purpose  is  to  bring  out,  and  to  bring 
out  in  an  effective  popular  way,  certain  relig- 
ious truths  which  are  involved  in  the  very 
make  of  things.  The  history  of  the  rise  and 
growth  of  worlds,  of  the  great  days,  and  the 
orderly  succession  of  life  upon  the  earth,  is 
here  followed  by  a  religious  eye,  from  a  ]-elig- 
ious  motive,  and  with  a  religious  end  in  view. 
This  is  evident  not  only  from  the  relation  of 
this  first  lesson  concerning  God  in  nature  to 
other  teachings  of  the  Scriptures  which  con- 
tinue it,  but  also  from  the  general  purport  of 
its  contents,  as  well  as  fi-om  some  particular 
points  seized  upon  by  the  prophet's  eye,  and 
made  prominent  in  his  narrative.  Thus  Ave 
notice  this  significant  fact  that,  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  creation  of  animals,  special  men- 
tion is  made  of  one  only,  and  that  one  no 
more  noticeable  than  many  others  from  a  natu- 
ralist's stand-point.  "  And  God  created  great 
whales."  The  great  whale  of  our  version  may 
refer  to  any    amphibious   monster,  and   it   is 


OBJECT  OF   THE  FIRST  LESSON,        1 49 

very  probable  tlie  mention  of  it  would  have 
carried  the  mind  of  an  Israelite,  in  Moses'  day, 
back  to  the  animal  worship,  and  particularly 
the  worship  of  the  sacred  crocodile,  prevalent 
in  Egypt  ;^  and  so,  by  one  stroke,  the  inspired 
seer  sweeps  away  the  whole  idolatry  of  ani- 
mal life,  with  which  the  Israelites  had  become 
familiar  in  the  land  of  bondage.  It  may  have 
been  exceedingly  important  for  him,  as  a  re- 
liscious  man,  to  sino;le  out  the  creation  of  the 
sacred  crocodile,  though  a  naturalist,  with  a 
purely  scientific  obj*ect,  might  have  given  a 
different  classification  of  livino^  creatures. 
The  paramount  religious  motive  in  the  Mosaic 
account  of  the  creation  appears,  also,  in  the 
emphasis  laid  upon  the  statement  that  the 
great  lights  were  made  for  signs,  and  for 
seasons,  and  for  days,  and  for  years. f  Many 
who  have  not  stopped  to  gain  Moses'  point  of 
view,  have  stumbled  at  this  statement.  To 
no  one  writing  of  the  formation  of  the  solar 
system  from  a  purely  astronomical  motive, 
would  it  occur  that  the  sun  and  the  moon 
were  made  simply  for  earthly  uses.  But  for 
^^^  verses,  in  this  brief  account,  the  ministry 
of  the  great  lights  is  made  prominent  by  a 
teacher  who  knew  how  the  Chaldeans  studied 


*  See  Speaker's  Commentary,  in  loco.     Also  Dawson :  Origin 
of  World,  p.  215. 

f  Compare,  also,  Jer,  xxxi.  35  ;  Ps.  civ.  19. 


150  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

the  aspect  of  the  stars,  and  how  easily  the 
heavenly  luminaries  might  take  the  place  of 
the  glory  of  the  Invisible  God  in  the  wonder- 
ing eyes  of  men;  and  who  meant,  therefore, 
by  this  emphatic  and  repeated  mention  of  the 
creation  of  the  sun,  and  the  moon,  and  the 
stars,  and  their  earthly  uses,  to  do  away  at 
once  and  forever,  among  his  people,  with  that 
ancient  and  most  natural  form  of  idolatry, 
and  to  keep  Israel  true  to  the  worship  of  the 
one  Creator,  who  said,  "  Let  there  be  light, 
and  there  was  light."  Judged,  then,  histori- 
cally., or  in  view  of  the  requirements  of  the 
times  upon  a  religious  teacher,  all  falls  into 
order  and  becomes  plain  in  this  first  great  les- 
son given  at  the  beginning  of  Israel's  school- 
ins:  into  a  true  relisrious  view  of  nature. 

In  consideration  of  this  evident  religious 
purport  of  the  natural  history  of  the  Bible,  it 
has  often  been  said,  but  too  loosely  said,  that 
it  is  not  the  office  of  a  revelation  to  teach 
science ;  that  we  have  no  reason  to  expect  the 
several  Scriptures  to  be  in  advance  of  the 
scientific  attainments  of  their  day,  and  that 
the  religious  infallibility  of  the  Bible  is  quite 
consistent  with  a  multitude  of  sins  asrainst  the 
truth  of  nature.  These  statements,  however, 
need  closer  definition.  We  can  conceive  a 
progressive  revelation  from  the  God  of  Truth 
to  be  free,  at  any  one  point  of  its  course,  from 


RE  LA  TION  OF  RE  VELA  TION  TO  SCLENCE.    I  5  I 

the  oblioration  of  teachins^  science  far  in  ad- 
vance  of  the  knowledo:e  of  men  livino*  at  that 
particular  time ;  but  there  is  one  scientific  ob- 
ligation which  would  seem  to  be  incumbent 
upon  revelation  at  every  period  of  its  develop- 
ment, and  that  is,  the  obligation  of  helping  on 
the  advance  of  the  human  mind  in  knowledge 
by  its  whole  tenor  and  spirit ;  and  this  obliga- 
tion involves  a  Avise  precaution  and  method  in 
the  accommodation  of  its  teachings  to  human 
ignorance  from  time  to  time,  so  that  the  per- 
missible and  necessary  adaj^tations  of  revela- 
tion to  an  early  age  may  not  become  fixed  as 
barriers  in  the  way  of  progress  in  a  later  age. 
Providence  cannot  be  expected  to  outrun  its 
own  work,  and  to  violate  its  own  benign  law, 
which  makes  knowledge  always  the  i-e^vard  of 
labor;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  we  should 
expect  a  providential  revelation  so  to  frame 
the  first  lessons  of  human  childhood  that  the 
world,  when  come  to  age,  would  not  have  to 
unlearn  them.  While  it  was  enough  for  Adam, 
or  man,  to  begin  by  giving  their  names  to 
things,  if  man  was  from  the  beginning  under 
divine  instruction,  that  first  lesson  and  school- 
ing in  natural  history  should  not  stand  in  the 
way  of  subsequent  science.  We  should  expect, 
then,  in  a  primitive  revelation,  imparted  pri- 
marily for  a  religious  purpose,  that  it  would 
not  teach  a  false  scientific  alphabet  of  things, 


152  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

and  that  its  reflex  influence,  at  least,  all  along 
would  be  helpful  to  growth  in  knowledge. 
We  should  expect  to  find  in  it  the  principle 
of  its  own  correction;  and  its  whole  influence, 
if  it  came  from  the  God  of  nature,  would  help 
on,  rather  than  stand  against,  a  growing  knowl- 
edge of  the  mysteries  of  the  creation.  If  it 
would  be  absurd  to  require  the  teacher  of  a 
child  to  explain  the  higher  mathematics  to  a 
mind  incapable  of  comprehending  a  simple 
algebraic  equation,  it  should  be  required  of 
the  teacher  of  the  elements  that  he  should  not 
introduce  error  into  the  multiplication  table  ; 
that  his  instructions  on  any  subject,  and  at 
any  point  of  the  course,  though  incomplete, 
and  accommodated  to  the  pupil's  intelligence, 
should  be  so  far  truthful  and  stimulative  as 
to  set  the  child's  mind  movinsr  on  in  the  rio^ht 
direction.  The  moral,  and  spiritual,  and  natu- 
ral, alphabet  of  things,  first  given  by  revela- 
tion, must  be  a  truthful  and  helpful  alphabet, 
though  the  whole  language  and  literature  of 
God's  wonderful  thought  may  belong  largely 
to  a  his/her  course  of  education  than  this  earth 
can  possibly  afford  even  to  the  wisest  and 
the  most  advanced.  Providence,  in  Moses' 
day,  could  have  done  little  more  with  our 
physics  and  astronomy  than  a  mother  with 
her  child  in  her  lap,  just  beginning  to  talk, 
could  find  use  for  an  "  Unabridged  Diction- 


SCIENTIFIC  ALPHABET  OF  THE  BIBLE.     153 

aiy,"  with  its  definitions.  When  the  good 
Providence  which  held  humanity  with  all  its 
hopes  in  its  hand,  began  to  teach  the  rudi- 
ments of  that  Divine  wisdom  which  shall  be 
the  study  of  man  forever, — that  thoughtful  and 
far-seeing  Providence  was  content  to  teach  the 
simple  alphabet  of  nature  first,  and  to  put 
into  one  short  chapter,  which  a  child  can  com- 
mit to  memory,  the  first  truths  of  the  creation, 
whose  manifold  wisdom  the  human  mind  is  to 
contemplate  through  all  generations,  and  to 
begin,  perhaps,  to  comprehend  after  it  shall 
have  fully  come  to  age  in  eternity. 

The  whole  vexed  question,  then,  of  the  sci- 
entific truthfulness  of  the  Bible  seems  to  us 
to  reduce  itself  to  simple  inquiries  like  these  : 
Is  the  scientific  alphabet  of  the  Bible  good? 
Do  the  Scriptures  teach  the  few  first  principles 
of  nature  so  well  that  man  has  not  been  com- 
pelled to  unlearn  them  in  order  to  acquire  the 
language  of  nature  ?  Did  the  word  of  God, 
as  it  was  spoken  from  age  to  age,  work  for 
man's  enlarging  knowledge  of  things  ?  If  so, 
the  Bible  fits  admirably  into  the  process  of 
revelation,  and  is  wisely  adapted  to  the  whole 
broad  plan  of  the  divine  education  of  man. 
If,  however,  in  any  particular  accent  of  its  ru- 
dimentary scientific  speech,  the  Bible  fails  of 
this  test,  and  should  give  a  false  sound,  there 
we  may  be  sure  we  should  hear  the  stammer- 


1 54  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

ing  voice  of  the  pupil,  and  not  the  word  of  the 
Divine  Teacher.  But  if,  in  the  confusion  of 
tongues,  in  the  idolatrous  ignorance  of  the 
nations,  to  one  people  was  given  the  alphabet 
by  which  the  heavens  and  earth  are  to  be 
read ;  if  a  few  leading  words  of  the  knowl- 
edge which  in  the  latter  days  shall  run  to  and 
fro  over  the  earth  were  correctly  spelled  out ; 
and  if  this  elementary  scientific  training  pre- 
vented this  chosen  people  from  corrupting  the 
very  first  principles  of  any  true  knowledge  of 
nature,  and  running  into  fetich  ism,  and  super- 
stitions ;  then  we  have  something  in  this  pe- 
culiarity of  it  which  at  once  arrests  attention, 
and  commands  our  admiration ;  and  in  propor- 
tion as  we  are  unable  to  explain  the  rise  and 
power  of  this  remarkable  virtue  of  the  Bible 
from  the  conceivable  conditions  of  the  world's 
childhood,  we  have  in  it  an  indication  of  the 
working  of  a  higher  than  human  wisdom. 
And  this  is  what  we  claim  we  do  have  in  the 
science  of  the  Bible.  This  is  the  great  j)he- 
nomenon  which  did  appear  in  history  in  the 
Mosaic  account  of  the  creation.  Such  is  the 
w^ork  for  man's  better  knowledge  of  nature, 
the  elementary  and  most  necessary  work  for 
a  true  and  ever  enlarging  science,  which  has 
been  accomplished  by  the  natural  philosophy 
of  the  Bible.  We  do  not  deny  that  good 
men   may  often  have  taken  divine  accommo- 


THE  ALPHA    OF    TRUE  SCIENCE,         1 55 

dations  to  the  weakness  and  ignorance  of  a 
past  age,  and  thrown  them  as  shackles  around 
the  advancing  morality  and  knowledge  of 
their  own  times.  We  do  not  deny  that  the 
Bible  may  be  so  abused  as  to  be  made  an  en- 
emy of  progress.  But  our  concern  at  present 
is  with  the  real  scientific  worth  and  tendency 
of  the  Bible,  not  with  the  work  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  or  with  the  untenable  posi- 
tions which  an  over-anxious  Protestant  apolo- 
getics from  time  to  time  may  have  assumed. 
We  are  content  to  affirm  that  the  following 
elementary  truths,  which  belong  to  the  alpha- 
bet of  nature,  and  are  essential  to  all  proper 
scientific  speech,  are  to  be  found  in  our  Scrip- 
tures ;  and  the  fact  that  they  were  put  there, 
has  proved  a  great  help  to  man's  growing  un- 
derstanding of  nature. 

The  opening  verse  of  the  Bible  gives  the 
Alpha,  the  true  first  letter,  of  any  real  science 
of  things.  It  declares,  with  no  uncertain 
sound,  the  spiritual  origin  of  all  material  phe- 
nomena: "In  the  beginning  God  created  the 
heaven  and  the  earth."  Have  we  been  com- 
pelled, by  any  advance  of  positive  knowledge, 
to  give  up  that  teaching?  What  has  our 
latest  science  to  say  to  that  Alpha  of  the  bib- 
lical alphabet  of  nature?  Herbert  Spencer 
says  there  is  an  unknown  Power,  but  that 
there   never  was   a  beginning  of   things ;  for 


15^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

"  evolution  negatives  the  snpjDOsition  of  a  first 
organism."^  Prof.  Tyndall  is  confident  that 
life  never  stirs  within  the  glass  cases  of  liis 
experiments,  in  the  Royal  Academy,  unless 
there  is  some  life  already  there  to  stir ;  but, 
as  a  man  of  science,  he  does  not  pretend  to 
say  what  was  in  the  beginning.  Haeckel,  how- 
ever, almost  knows  what  was  in  the  beginning, 
and  is  willing  to  teach  all  that  he  knows  in  the 
schools.  In  the  beginning  was  an  atom  of 
homogeneous  matter ;  and  it  stirred,  and  became 
different  from  itself ;  and  it  multiplied ;  and,  be- 
hold, the  earth,  and  its  beauty,  and  its  fruits,  and 
man  !  The  atom  begins  at  last  to  think  of  spirit, 
and  to  dream  of  God  !  and  thought,  and  con- 
science, and  love,  and  God — the  world  and  all 
things  therein,  the  heavens  and  all  their  hosts — 
come  forth  in  succession  from  this  one  homoge- 
neous beginning,  this  all-comprehensive  proto- 
plasm ;  very  much  it  seems  to  us  wondering  and 
unsophisticated  spectators,  as  we  have  seen  all 
imaginable  things  emei'ge  from  under  the  cover 
of  a  magician's  sleeve  !  We  forget,  however ; 
the  magician  is  banished  by  this  science  ; — but 
is  not  his  magic  after  all  only  transferred  to 
nature  itself?  Do  not  extremes  meet  here? 
Haeckel,  with  his  monistic  theory,  and  the  old 
supernaturalist,  with  his  creation  out  of  noth- 


Biology,  Appendix. 


CREATION  NOT  MAGIC  1 57 

ing  ?  Do  not  botli  unconsciously  give  a  magi- 
cal theory  of  nature  ?  the  only  difference,  after 
all,  being  that  the  one  puts  the  magic  outside, 
and  the  other  puts  it  inside  the  creative  pro- 
cess? The  story  is  told  of  the  singular  feat 
of  a  Japanese  magician,  who  "  took  a  flower- 
pot, filled  it  with  earth,  put  a  seed  in  it, 
placed  it  on  the  table,  and  commenced  fanning 
it.  Soon  the  earth  was  broken,  the  plant  ap- 
peared, and  in  a  few  minutes  grew  before  the 
spectator's  eyes  into  a  bush,  budded,  blos- 
somed, and  the  performer  picked  off  the  blos- 
soms ;  and  gave  them  to  the  spectators."  So 
the  supernaturalists,  as  our  evolutionist  of 
Haeckel's  school  might  tell  us,  would  have  us 
believe  the  world  was  brought  forth  in  a  day 
by  a  Being  who  conjured  it  into  existence. 
Science  has  banished  the  thought  of  a  divine 
Magician.  We  are  glad  that  it  has ;  only  we 
do  not  see  what  is  gained,  if  the  magic  is 
taken  from  the  magician  and  left  in  his  pot. 
We  have,  on  any  hypothesis,  the  miracle  of 
the  creation,  the  great  wonder  of  the  world. 
If  we  attempt,  with  such  scientific  imagina- 
tion as  we  can  command,  to  realize  Haeckel's 
visions  of  the  past,  and  see  just  how  the  world 
grew,  we  confess  we  cannot  help  wondering 
what  strange  magic  is  concealed  in  the  pot- 
We  turn  with  relief  to  the  simpler  statement — 
which  yields  indeed  no  explanation,  but  which 


15^  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

su2:o;ests  no  wand  raised  over  the  creation,  or 
no  occult  art  of  transformation  hidden  within 
it,  but  which  does  leave  reason  resting  at 
least  on  the  idea  of  a  sufficient  cause — "la 
the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the 
earth."  What  do  we  know,  if  anything,  con- 
cerning the  first  cause,  or  necessary  beginning, 
of  material  things  ?  Do  we  know  anything  by 
which  we  may  convict  Moses'  elementary  les- 
son of  falsehood  ?  We  have,  in  many  respects, 
a  far  better  knowledge  of  the  secrets  of  the 
dim  past  than  Moses,  or  the  prophets,  ever 
dreamed  of  possessing.  We  have  opened  the 
long-sealed  records  of  the  earth,  and  followed, 
step  by  step,  its  histoiy  through  cycles  upon 
cycles  of  ages  before  ever  the  mountains  were 
brought  forth  ;  and  traced,  as  we  suppose,  the 
slow  growth  of  the  present  earth,  teeming  with 
life  and  fruitful  civilizations,  back  to  its  be- 
ginning in  a  mass  of  nebulous  light,  thrown  by 
some  unknown  Power  into  the  midst  of  space. 
We  have  searched  for  the  last  principle  of 
matter,  until  human  ingenuity  has  attained  a 
skill  in  measuring  the  infinitely  small,  the  re- 
sults of  which  human  imagination  utterly  fails 
to  follow.  Science  has  pursued  the  molecules 
by  its  measurements  until  they  have  left, 
in  which  to  conceal  themselves,  a  space  no 
larger  than  the  five-hundred-millionth  of  an 
inch  ;  a  rise  in  temperature  of  the  eighty-eight- 


THE  SPIRITUAL  GROUND  OF  EXISTENCE.    1 59 

hundredth  of  a  degree  centigrade  has  been  de- 
tected ;  and,  more  amazing  still !  the  presence 
of  the  hundred  and  eighty-millionth  part 
of  a  grain  of  soda  has  been  revealed  by  the 
spectroscope !  And  not  content  with  this, 
we  have  sought  to  penetrate  into  the  secret 
dwelling-place  of  thought,  until,  in  a  bit  of 
brain-tissue  w^hich  one  misrht  hold  on  the 
point  of  a  needle,  there  have  been  disclosed 
wonderful  groupings  of  cells,  and  lines  of 
communicating  fibres,  which  rival,  in  their 
adaptations  and  pei'fectness,  the  order  and 
rhythm  of  the  heavens.  But  the  deeper  into 
the  secrets  of  nature  we  pierce,  the  farther 
back  toward  the  beginning  of  the  creation  we 
penetrate,  the  nearer  are  we  brought  to  the 
old  mystery  of  a  reality  beyond  all  knowl- 
edge, before  whose  presence  and  power  our 
imaginations  must  drop  their  last  images  of 
things,  and  reason  must  give  place  to  faith. 
We  feel  our  dependence  upon  the  Infinite  God 
around  us.  Faith  is  the  sense  of  the  pressure 
upon  our  being  of  the  Infinite  Being  in  whom 
we  live.  It  is  the  beginning  and  end  of  rea- 
son. Science,  searching  for  the  origin  of 
things,  cannot  find  it  in  things  themselves,  and 
is  compelled,  after  all  its  endeavors,  to  give  the 
creation  over  to  reason  and  conscience  for  its 
final  interpretation.  It  knows  nothing  by 
which  it  can  gainsay  their  assertion  that  on 


l6o  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

the  other  side  of  the  atoms  is  God.  Beyond 
the  last  conceivable  subdivision  of  matter,  be- 
neath the  last  imaginable  centre  of  force,  is 
the  One  substance — the  continuous,  indivisi- 
ble, omnipotent,  spiritual  ground  of  existence, 
the  living  God. 

That  we  are  not  indulging  in  the  mere  as- 
sertions of  the  metaphysicians  (though  we 
cannot,  if  we  would,  silence  the  daily  asser- 
tion by  the  spirit  within  us  of  its  own  na- 
ture) ;  but  that  our  latest  science  is  incapable 
of  detecting  any  false  sound  in  the  Mosaic 
speech  of  the  Creator ;  it  would  not  be  diffi- 
cult to  prove  from  the  often  unconscious  testi- 
mony of  the  most  pronounced  materialists.  A 
short,  and  not  unfair,  method  with  the  mate- 
rialistic denial  of  spirit  and  God,  would  be 
to  show  the  impossibility  of  becoming  a 
materialist  from  the  lives  of  the  materialists 
themselves ;  the  impossibility  of  material- 
ism from  the  writings  of  its  believers ;  the 
impossibility  of  living,  thinking,  and  writing 
at  all,  without  confessing  more  than  material- 
ism means  to  confess.  If  physiological  mate- 
rialists should  claim,  in  mitigation  of  their  fre- 
quent unintended  lapses  into  spiritual  modes 
of  expression,  that  the  metaphysicians  have  so 
thoroughly  saturated  human  language  with 
their  concej^tions  that  the  difficulty  of  avoid- 
ing them  is  not  the  fault,  but  the  misfortune, 


IMPOSSIBLE    TO  BE  A   MATERIALIST.      l6l 

of  the  new  science ;  then,  they  are  refuted 
again  by  their  own  principles.  For,  accord- 
ing to  their  own  physiological  laws,  the  meta- 
physicians have  not  made  the  brain  dream  of 
spirit  and  entity,  but  the  brain  has  made  the 
metaphysicians  spin  their  endless  discussions 
of  supersensible  things ;  and  if  the  brain  has 
dreamed  a  great  historical  dream  of  a  spiritu- 
al life,  and  if  matter  still  persists  in  thinking 
the  philosopher's  idle  thoughts,  and  the  physi- 
cal organism  compels  language  itself  to  enter 
into  the  service  of  the  metaphysicians ;  then, 
surely,  they  are  not  to  be  blamed  by  the  phy- 
siologists for  following  nature  out  to  her  spir- 
itual conclusions. 

Dr.  Maudsley  ought  not  to  berate  the  meta- 
physicians so  soundly  for  what,  upon  his  own 
showing,  is  a  purely  physiological  process. 
Let  the  brain,  whose  cells  have  worked  to- 
gether to  produce  the  language  of  the  soul,  do 
its  work  over  again,  and  to  better  purpose; 
let  the  brain,  in  its  nineteenth  century  evolu- 
tion, create,  if  it  can,  a  language  in  which  Dr. 
Maudsley  can  write  a  book  on  ^'  Physiology  of 
the  Mind,"  in  which  the  very  words  which  he 
binds  together  in  his  sentences  shall  not,  by 
their  inherent  meanings  and  inherited  force, 
transmit  more  spiritual  significance  than  he 
wishes  to  let  into  his  conclusions  ; — a  language 
which  shall  not  at  every  turn,  whether  we  will 


1 62  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

or  no,  send  our  thouglits  off,  far  and  wide,  in 
contemplation  of  things  unseen,  things  not 
dreamed  of  in  the  materialist's  philosophy. 
Until  materialists  can  make  lano^uao-e  work 
steadily  in  the  traces  of  their  logic,  we  cannot 
help  being  borne  by  their  own  words  farther 
and  wider  than  they  would  have  us  go.  So  im- 
possible, indeed,  is  it  for  a  thinker  to  be  a 
materialist,  even  when  fully  determined  to  be 
one,  that  Dr.  Maudsley — in  a  passage  intended 
to  be  a  conclusive  illustration  of  the  assumed 
fact  that  reasoning  may  be  an  organic  pro- 
cess, a  piece  of  mechanical  brain-work;  that 
a  man,  in  short,  might  be  as  good  a  reasoning 
machine  without  as  with  consciousness — is 
obliged,  in  the  very  sentence  in  which  he 
makes  this  assumption,  to  bring  in  the  sup]30- 
sition  of  another  instrument  (besides  the  rea- 
soning-machine) more  delicate  than  the  micro- 
scope, or  the  galvanoscope,  as  the  means  of 
"  reading  off  the  results  of  his  cerebral  opera- 
tions from  without."^  He  is  obliged,  that  is, 
in  order  to  conceive  of  man  as  a  reasoning-ma- 
chine, to  fall  back  upon  the  subsidiary  hy- 
pothesis of  a  "reading-machine;"  though  the 
brain  be  the  agent,  and  does  all  the  work, 
there  must  be,  also,  a  reader,  or  witness,  of  its 
operations ;  though  there  is  no  such  entity  as 


*  Physiology  of  Mind,  p.  26. 


IMPOSSIBLE    TO  BE  A   MATERIALIST.       1 63 

a  tliinlving  mind — and  Dr.  Mandsley  is  indig- 
nant at  the  absurd  metaphysics  which  is  still 
enamored  by  that  old  delusion — nevertheless, 
our  determined  materialist  cannot  get  through 
with  his  own  physiological  reasoning  without 
calling  in  the  aid  of  something  to  witness  his 
performance.  We  claim  Dr.  Maudsley  as  a 
metaphysician  in  spite  of  himself !  Indeed, 
mere  physical  thinking  is  an  impossibility  of 
thought.  Metaphysics,  driven  out  of  one  win- 
dow, ilies  back  through  another.  Drop  meta- 
physics from  your  substantive,  and  it  insinu- 
ates itself  into  the  adjective ;  expel  it  from 
the  subject  of  a  sentence,  and  it  lies  coiled  up 
in  the  verb.  Metaphysics  even  our  mental 
physiologists  find  to  be  a  ghost  which  will 
not  down  at  their  bidding.  No  man,  while 
breathino;  the  breath  of  life,  has  succeeded  in 
being  a  materialist.  To  accomplish  that  feat 
he  must  first  think  in  a  vacuum — that  is,  stop 
thinking. 

Not  only  do  we  find  that  would-be  material- 
ists cannot  deny  extra-physical  facts,  with- 
out at  the  same  time  implying  their  exist- 
ence ;  but  also,  it  is  true,  that  to  deny  the 
spiritual  origin  of  matter  is  in  no  way  neces- 
sary to  positive  science,  and  the  great  body  of 
scientific  men  are  not  fairly  chargeable  with 
materialistic  extravagance.  Thought,  though 
baffled  at  many  points,  hard  pressed  and  con- 


164  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

fused,  ignorant  of  its  own  origin  and  destinj, 
is  nevertheless  not  going  to  commit  suicide  in 
our  day.  The  "  Microcosm  "  of  Lotze  represents 
a  modern  spiritual  philosophy  which  is  on  the 
flood,  and  which  may  yet  pour  its  refreshing 
power  over  the  English  positivism.  For  the 
explanation  of  the  very  mechanism  of  things  ; 
for  the  possibility  of  their  actions  and  reac- 
tions; for  the  origin  and  continuance  of  the 
very  order  of  nature ;  Lotze  is  led  to  fall  back 
ujDon  the  reality  of  a  living  spiritual  Being 
and  Omnipresence.  The  ultimate  fact  of  the 
universe  is  not  an  atom,  or  a  group  of  atoms, 
but  that  Unseen  Presence  by  whom  all  things 
consist.  The  first  and  the  last  fact  of  human 
experience,  is  Intelligence  and  Will.  Matter, 
pressed  to  the  utmost,  declares  itself  to  be 
Force.  Force,  pressed  to  the  utmost,  declares 
itself  to  be  Thought  and  Will.  And  Thought 
and  Will,  pressed  to  the  utmost,  declare  that 
they  are  the  breath  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  The 
Alpha  and  the  Omega  of  human  experience  is 
Spirit.  Our  science,  when  it  has  held  up  the 
world  to  the  most  searching  scrutiny,  must 
drop  it  back  again  into  the  hand  of  the  Al- 
mighty, from  whence  it  came.  Keason,  fol- 
lowing motion  from  star  to  star,  and  into  the 
infinite  past,  cannot  escape  the  necessity  of 
looking  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  visible 
universe  for  the  First  Cause,  which  it  always 


MATTER,  LIFE,  AND  MIND  FROM  GOD.    1 65 

seeks,  but  never  finds,  within  the  limits  of  the 
seen.  We  can  bring  nothing,  then,  from  the 
whole  domain  of  knowleds^e  to  contradict  the 
Mosaic  vision  of  the  spiritual  origin  of  all 
created  things.  The  prophet  of  old,  so  far  as 
we  can  know,  made  no  mistake  in  the  first 
letter  of  his  alphabet  of  nature.  It  enters  into 
our  latest  and  best  speech  of  the  creation. 
We  cannot  think  without  it.  At  the  end  of 
all  our  science,  at  the  summit  of  all  oui*  phi- 
losophy, we  stand  to-day  where,  in  the  dim 
antiquity  of  an  almost  prehistoric  age,  one 
stood  in  the  spirit  of  the  Lord,  and  said : 
"  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and 
the  earth." 

Secondly,  the  opening  chapter  of  the 
Bible  refers  three  existing  j^henomena  direct- 
ly to  a  spiritual  cause.  It  selects  three  points 
in  the  creation  as  special  j)oints  of  divine  ac- 
tivity. Other  links  in  the  chain  of  existence 
may  be  dependent  upon  these  points,  but  these 
three  are  held  up  by  the  hand  of  God.  These 
direct  acts,  or  constant  modes  of  divine  activ- 
ity, are,  according  to  the  Scriptural  account  of 
the  origin  of  things,  that  divine  act  by  which 
matter  exists;  that -divine  act  by  which  life 
comes  forth  from  the  earth ;  and  that  divine 
act  by  which  a  human  soul  thinks  and  wor- 
ships. The  creation  of  the  heaven  and  the 
earth    (the   matter    of    the   universe   endued 


1 66  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

with  force)  ;  the  springing  up  of  life  on  the 
earth ;  and  the  birth  of  the  soul  of  man,  are 
the  results  of  divine  interpositions  or  words. 
God  calls  them  forth — from  what,  or  how,  the 
Scripture  does  not  presume- to  say.'^  The  dis- 
tinction between  these  initial  acts,  or  more 
immediate  points  of  divine  efficiency,  in  the 
creation,  and  other  intermediate  stages  of  the 
creative  process,  is  indicated  in  the  Mosaic 
Genesis ;  but  it  is  not  defined,  or  explained,  in 
the  biblical  philosophy  of  nature.  The  Bible 
does  not  take  sides  on  the  disputed  question 
of  the  nature  of  vital  force.  It  would  be  but 
the  repetition  of  an  old  and  mischievous  error 
of  over-zealous  theologians,  should  we  impute 
to  Moses  the  intentional  teaching  of  a  specific 
vital  force  in  his  account  of  the  supersensible 
origin  of  life.  The  one  does  not  necessarily 
involve  the  other.  One  mistake  Moses  cer- 
tainly did  not  make ;  he  did  not  seek  to  deter- 
mine, as  spiritual  truths,  questions  which  are 
matters  of  scientific  investigation.  A  posi- 
tivist  in  theology,  he  was  not  a  dogmatist  in 
physics.  Leaving  the  modern  question  con- 
cerning vital  force  untouched,  the  Mosaic  ac- 
count does  commit  itself,  however,  unhesita- 
tingly to  the  assertion  of  the  spiritual  origin 
of  matter,  life,  and  soul.     Other  parts  of  the 

*  Notice  the   use   of  tlie   strongest  word  for  "  to   create  "in 
verses  1,  21,  and  27. 


MATTER,  LIFE,  AND  MIND  FROM  GOD.    1 67 

creation  may  follow  of  themselves,  when  these 
are  once  given ;  but  these  three,  at  least,  come 
from  without,  are  phenomena  of  supersensible 
origination;  they  are  acts,  or  modes,  of  divine 
efficiency.  The  account  of  the  creation  in  the 
book  of  Genesis,  and  the  whole  subsequent 
natural  theology  of  the  Bible,  agree  in  regard- 
ing these  three  phenomena,  at  least,  as  made 
from  something  which  does  not  appear.  The 
Bible  looks  Avithout  nature  for  their  origin 
and  cause. 

The  pure  monotheistic  faith  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  indeed,  is  never  careful  to  distin- 
guish between  first  and  second  causes  ;  and  not 
only  the  elemental  forces,  but  human  actions 
are  often  referred  directly  to  the  will  of  the 
Lord.  Life  especially  is  always  attributed  to 
God — He  is  its  author,  and  source.  In  the 
biblical  doctrine  we  may  say  that  these  three 
form  the  ancient  and  sacred  "  trinity  of  the 
creation" —  matter,  life,  and  soul ;  they  are 
the  related  and  coexistent,  but  underived  dis- 
tinctions in  the  creation  ;  each  existing  in  and 
for  the  others ;  neither  complete  without  the 
others ;  partaking  of  the  same  Divine  creative 
principle,  but  each  having  its  own  distinction 
of  being.  We  do  not  mean  that  this  trinity 
of  the  creation  lies  as  a  doctrine  fully  formu- 
lated anywhere  in  the  Bible ;  but  that  the 
biblical    philosophy  of    nature  can  be   legiti- 


1 68  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

mately  reduced  to  tliis  expression  of  it,  and 
tLat  in  the  Mosaic  Genesis  tliese  three  great, 
distinct,  yet  related,  acts  of  the  Creator  are 
indicated.  Moses  is  fairly  responsible  for  this 
much  of  scientific  teaching,  that  matter,  life, 
and  soul,  are  of  extra-physical  origination ; 
that  they  come  from  without  the  present  cre- 
ation and  are  of  God.  Was  he  wrong  in  this 
elementary  teaching  ?  Are  these  letters  of  the 
biblical  scientific  alphabet  to  be  sujDerseded  ? 
Experience  brings  us  daily  before  the  mystery 
of  this  sacred  trinity  of  the  creation ;  but  can 
scientific  scrutiny  either  remove  the  mystery,  or 
resolve  this  trinity  of  existence  into  any  pri- 
mal unity  ?  Can  we  find  anywhere  within 
the  bounds  of  the  physical  universe  the  cause, 
can  we  overtake  anywhere  in  the  endless 
•transformations  of  energy  the  original  force, 
from  which  these  ever-present  distinctions  of 
being  have  proceeded  ?  In  order  to  avoid 
repetition,  I  reserve  for  a  subsequent  chapter 
— where  in  connection  with  the  inquiry  into  the 
existence  of  an  Unseen  Universe  these  ques- 
tions must  be  considered — the  further  justifica- 
tion  of  this  primary  lesson  of  the  Bible  in  a 
scientific  conception  of  nature.  The  biblical 
premises  for  a  philosophy  of  nature  have  not 
yet,  at  least,  been  proved  false  or  defective. 
Matter,  in  its  present  form,  is  not  eternal ;  and 
life  is,  if  anything  is,  a  constant  mode  of  the 


THE    GROWTH   OF    CREATION,  1 69 

divine  energy  ;  and  mind,  on  the  lowest  admis- 
sible hypothesis,  is  the  supersensible  side  of 
matter— whatever  Mr.  Lewes  may  mean  by 
that.  Keduce  matter,  life,  and  mind,  to  the 
simplest  possible  scientific  terms,  and  they  still 
remain  the  unknown  quantities  of  the  equation 
by  whose  laws  reason  is  to  solve  the  problem 
of  the  universe;  they  are  the  original  terms, 
given  in  the  very  Statement  of  the  problem, 
and  their  meaning  and  value  are  to  be  sought 
elsewhere  than  in  the  course  of  the  equation 
itself.  So  Moses  thought  when  he  repre- 
sented them  as  given  by  God.  Science  cannot 
forbid  us  from  seeking  for  their  real  signifi- 
cance outside  its  own  processes  ;  and  reason, 
and  conscience,  and  our  own  spiritual  sense, 
urge  us  to  write  before  each  one  of  these  three 
original  terms  of  the  creation,  what  Moses  of 
old  wrote — God. 

Thirdly,  the  Mosaic  account  suggests  one 
other  primary  scientific  truth.  It  reveals  the 
fact  of  a  continuous  creative  process ;  it  im- 
plies a  law  of  development  in  the  creation. 
This  world,  according  to  the  Bible,  was  not 
finished  in  a  day ;  it  was  not  thrown  into 
existence  ready  made,  and  fitted  up  with  all 
the  modern  improvements.  It  was  a  progres- 
sive work.  These  are  the  generations,  or 
growths,  of  the  heavens  -and  the  earth  when 
they   were    created    (Gen.    ii.    4).      Herbert 


170  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

Spencer  may  liave  been  misled  by  chance  pas- 
sages from  the  theologians,  but  he  does  not 
read  his  Bible  to  good  purpose,  when  he 
satirizes  the  belief  in  a  special  creation  as  ^'  a 
carpenter-like  theory."  Moses,  in  his  vision, 
saw  no  Almighty  hand  building  up  the  stories 
of  the  creation  ;  he  heard  no  sound  of  ham- 
mer, or  confused  noise  of  the  workmen  ; — the 
spirit  of  the  Lord  moved  upon  the  face  of  the 
deep ;  chaos  took  form  and  comeliness  ; — and 
before  his  inspired  vision  the  solar  system 
grew  through  a  succession  of  days  to  its 
present  order  and  beauty ;  and  at  last,  when 
all  things  were  ready,  man  came  forth  out  of 
the  dust.  There  is  absolutely  no  warrant  in 
Scripture  for  us  to  regard  the  world  as  an  ex- 
temporized manufacture  ;  on  the  contrary,  the 
Bible  lays  from  the  beginning  firm  hold  of  a 
scientific  principle,  not  grasped  by  other 
primitive  traditions  of  the  origin  of  things, 
viz.,  that  there  Avas  an  oi'derly  process  of  cre- 
ation, a  continuous  development  of  a  creative 
purpose  or  law,  some  of  the  main  steps  and 
advances  of  which  it  sketches  with  graphic 
power.  It  gave  details  enough  of  this  unfold- 
ing, creative  i:)urpose,  to  fix  an  orderly  concep- 
tion of  it  in  the  mind  and  memory  of  a  primi- 
tive age.  This  distinguishing,  and,  for  an 
unscientific  a2:e,  sin^jular  virtue  of  the  Mosaic 
Genesis  ought  to   win  for  it  the  admiration, 


MOSES"   GENIUS  FOR    TEACHING.         17 1 

instead  of  tlie  ungrateful  and  hasty  rejection, 
of  scientific  lecturers.  How  happened  it  that 
amid  the  grotesque  myths  which  were  the 
current  beliefs  of  antiquity,  this  one  clear, 
authoritative  assertion  of  creation  by  law 
sprang  up  and  maintained  itself  in  Israel  ? 
How  happened  it  that  the  doctrine  of  an 
ascending  order  of  life  was  put  into  the  reli- 
gious primer  of  Israel  ?  How  did  it  come  to 
pass  that  a  Jewish  patriarch  and  lawgiver 
knew,  to  some  extent,  the  fact  of  the  orderly 
development,  the  "  increasing  differentiation," 
the  progress  from  type  to  type,  and  to  ever 
higher  forms,  of  the  creation  ?  and  that,  too, 
centuries  before  the  accumulated  results  of 
the  laws  of  heredity  in  the  brain  of  a  Her- 
bert Spencer  had  recorded  themselves,  through 
his  physiological  organization,  and  for  the 
wonder  of  a  late  age,  in  his  "  First  Princi- 
ples ?  "  If  not  more  than  a  century  or  two 
ago  some  genius  had  grasped  clearly  the  idea 
of  evolution,  and,  in  order  to  accommodate  it 
to  an  unscientific  ecclesiastical  generation,  and 
to  plant  it  so  that  it  might  grow  in  the  mind 
of  his  contemporaries,  had  hit  upon  the  expe- 
dient of  using  a  week,  with  its  mornings  and 
evenings,  as  the  scale  of  time  by  which  to  set 
forth  his  speculations,  and  had  filled  up 
those  days  with  tolerable  geological  accuracy, 
— that  genius  would  have  been  more  than  a 


172  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

Lucretms  to  our  modern  science — lie  would  be 
venerated  by  Tyndall  and  Huxley  as  a  thinker 
of  tlie  first  magnitude !  But  some  Jewish 
prophet  was  in  some  way  enabled  to  do  that 
in  a  remote  antiquity  !  Were  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis  some  newly-discovered  remnant  of 
Arabic  literature,  or  a  hieroglyphic  just  de- 
cij^hered  fi'om  some  Egyptian  monument,  it 
would  be  hailed  as  a  remarkable  anticij)ation 
of  some  of  the  chief  results  of  modern  science ; 
and,  even  though  it  might  be  shown  to  be  the 
writing  of  some  priest,  Dr.  Draper  would  have 
exulted  in  it  as  a  scientific  trophy,  and  have 
found  some  way  to  show  that  religion  sup- 
pressed it.  Keally,  Moses  ought  to  have  a 
seat  of  honor  in  the  scientific  pantheon  !  How 
happened  it  that  this  wonderful  Mosaic  con- 
ception of  a  growing  world,  an  unfolding  cre- 
ative work,  burst  upon  the  mind  of  man  at 
that  early  day,  long  before  the  knowledge  of 
the  Copernican  system,  long  before  man's  ac- 
quaintance with  fossil  records,  centuries  even 
before  the  earth  had  been  mapped,  or  meas- 
ures of  time  or  space,  greater  than  a  few 
leagues  of  an  inland  sea  or  a  few  generations 
of  men,  had  become  familiar?  When  the 
human  mind,  awaking  with  the  whole  world 
to  question,  was  confused  by  a  thousand  nur- 
sery stories,  and  still  wondered  and  dreamed 
like  a  child ;  what  simpler,   more  impressive, 


METHOD    OF   THE  MOSAIC   TEACHING.    173 

and  more  easily-remembered  scale  and  method 
for  teaching  the  truths  of  a  process  of  cre- 
ation, and  an  orderly  progress  of  it,  could 
have  been  devised  ?  Did  it  not  occur  in  a 
book  held  to  be  sacred,  would  not  Moses' 
creative  week  be  regarded  as  a  wonderful 
stroke  of  genius  ?  Is  not  the  wisdom  of  a 
Divine  Teacher  displayed  in  the  method  of  the 
lesson  ? 

But  we  may  be  interrupted  with  the  ques- 
tion. Did  not  the  method  of  the  Mosaic  teach- 
ing involve  falsehood  ?  has  it  not  served  to 
^^  for  centuries  an  erroneous  idea  of  the  ori- 
gin of  the  world  ?  It  certainly  has  not  kept 
a  single  erroneous  idea  in  place  after  science 
was  ready  to  become  an  authoritative  teacher 
of  the  truth  ;  and  the  "  nominal  scale  "  em- 
ployed by  revelation,  as  Herder  aptly  desig- 
nates it,  involved  in  itself  no  untruth,  while 
it  proved  useful  in  fixing  first  truths  necessary 
to  the  very  beginnings  of  right  knowledge. 
No  science  ever  could  have  grown  out  of  a 
Chaldean  cosmology.  As  knowledge  grows, 
the  biblical  philosophy  of  nature  does  not, 
when  rightly  interpreted,  stand  in  the  way  of 
scientific  truth.  Indeed,  from  the  educational 
point  of  view  which  we  have  all  along  taken, 
and  which  seems  to  us  to  be  the  proper  histori- 
cal point  of  view,  the  controversy  which  has 
been  so  hotly  urged  as  to  whether  the  days  of 


174  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

Genesis  are  literal  days,  or  designations  of 
vast  aeons  of  time,  becomes  a  matter  of  very 
little  importance.  For  tlie  length  of  time  oc- 
cupied in  the  course  of  the  creation  was  not 
the  subject  of  this  iirst  lesson  concerning  the 
creation  by  God,  and  according  to  law.  In 
either  case,  whether  the  word  day  is  to  be 
taken  literally  or  largely,  the  divisions  of 
time,  the  mornings  and  evenings,  are  only  the 
scheme,  so  to  speak,  of  the  lesson — the  method 
of  the  teaching.  In  neither  case  is  the  desig- 
nation of  time  the  end,  or  contents,  of  the  in- 
struction, but  the  means,  or  best  available 
method,  of  the  higher  truths  to  be  imparted. 
Definite  information  as  to  the  lapse  of  time 
since  the  beginnings  of  the  present  system  of 
things  was  not  given,  or  so  much  as  attempted, 
in  the  primary  lesson  of  a  true  religious  science. 
Here,  also,  we  have  another  illustration  of  the 
patience  of  the  Divine  Teacher,  of  the  self-re- 
straint of  revelation.  One  of  the  most  difficult 
things  for  a  child  to  do  is  to  gain  any  idea  of 
past  duration.  The  Mosaic  Genesis,  with  great 
sobriety,  abstained  from  the  imaginary  con- 
ce2:)tions  of  past  duration  which  were  at- 
tempted in  other  primitive  traditions  of  the 
creation.  Other  cosmogonies,  like  that  of  the 
Hindoos,  with  their  repeated  circles  of  con- 
jectural numbers,  and  their  fabulous  ages  of 
imaginary   gods,    resemble    the   child's   often 


THE  MOSAIC  SCALE    OF    TIME.  1/5 

absurd  efforts  to  form  some  idea  of  tlie  days 
before  lie»was  born.  There  are  no  incongru- 
ous guesses  at  time  in  our  Genesis."^  It  is  left 
indeterminate  by  a  revelation  intent  on  im- 
pressing upon  the  growing  mind  of  man  the 
first  simple,  essential  truths  of  a  religious  view 
of  the  creation.  Any  adequate  conception  of 
past  duration  must  be  gained,  if  at  all,  by  the 
practised  scientific  imagination.  It  is  the  wis- 
dom of  God  not  to  teach  a  lesson  which  would 
only  confuse  and  throw  into  foolish  concep- 
tions the  imasfination  of  man  in  his  childhood. 
It  is  left  for  us,  in  our  matured  knowledge,  to 
determine,  if  we  can,  how  long  the  Mosaic 
days  must  have  been.  But  we  should  not  ex- 
pect a  divine  Revelation  to  work  a  miracle  in 
order  to  anticipate  science,  and  to  cram  the 
brain  of  Adam  with  the  knowledge  of  the 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica.  The  difiiculty  which 
our  most  brilliant  scientific  lecturers  incur  in 
the  effort  to  make  their  immense  generaliza- 
tions popular,  might  teach  us  caution,  lest  we 


*  Contrast,  with  the  sobriety  and  abstinence  from  guesswork  of 
Genesis,  the  following-  scientific  opinion  of  the  much-lauded  Lucre- 
tius : — "  But,  as  I  am  of  opinion,  the  whole  of  the  world  is  of 
modem  date,  and  recent  in  its  origin  ;  and  had  its  beginning  but 
a  short  time  ago.  From  which  cause,  also,  some  arts  are  but 
now  being  refined,  and  are  even  at  present  on  the  increase  ;  many 
improvements  are  in  this  age  added  to  ships,  <S:c.  (B.  v.  330). 
How  happened  Moses,  with  grand  simplicity,  to  avoid  all  such 
labored  scientific  blundering  V 


I7<^  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

captiously  require  impossibilities  of  a  primi- 
tive revelation. 

It  will  not  be  necessary  for  us,  therefore, 
from  our  educational  point  of  view,  to  examine, 
at  length,  the  reasons  for  or  against  the  literal 
translation  of  the  word  day,  in  the  Book  of 
Genesis.  It  is  sufficient  to  observe  that  the 
writer  himself  uses  it  with  different  significa- 
tions, as  a  flexible  word,  in  diiferent  places.* 
Why  should  we  contend  for,  or  regard  as  of 
any  special  significance,  a  word  which  the 
writer  evidently  regarded  as  of  so  little  im- 
portance that  he  neither  defines  it,  nor  attaches 
to  it  any  one  constant  meaning — a  word,  in 
fact,  which  he  employs  as  a  natural  help,  a 
flexible  and  convenient  means,  for  imparting 
the  hi2:her  truths  with  which  he  is  concerned  ? 
If  the  word  has  since  been  fixed  in  theology, 
and  made  to  bear  the  burden  of  a  false  science, 
that  was  not  the  mistake  of  Moses,  but  a  limi- 
tation put  upon  revelation  by  the  ignorance 
and  perverseness  of  the  human  mind. 

It  is  noticeable  that  the  modern  theological 
abuse  of  the  Mosaic  word  day — so  admirably 
chosen  for  its  purpose — does  not  occur 
throughout  the  Bible  itself.  Revelation,  that 
is,  does  not  misinterpret  itself,  or  use,  so  as  to 
perpetuate  false  notions,  its  own  accommoda- 


*  Compare  verses  5,  8,  and  14,  and  these  with  Genesis  ii.  4. 


THE    TIME-ELEMENT  IN   GENESIS.       IJJ 

tions  to  man's  limited  intelligence.  Those 
passages  of  Scripture  which  are  the  later  com- 
mentaries and  expansions  of  this  primeval 
Hebrew  "  Song  of  the  Creation,"  contain  no 
sign  or  trace  of  any  six-day  theory  of  the 
making  of  the  world.  On  the  contrary,  the 
question  as  to  the  time- element  involved  in 
the  creation  was  a  question  kept  in  the  back- 
ground of  revelation ;  *  it  does  not  come  to 
the  front  among  the  truths  of  God's  power, 
law,  and  omnipresent  efficiency,  which  occupy 
the  foreground  of  revelation.  It  is  a  scientific 
question  reserved  for  a  scientific  age,  and  we 
are  still  very  much  at  sea  with  regard  to  it. 
The  only  important  reference  in  the  Bible  to 
the  days  of  the  creative  week  occurs  in  the 
retrospective  sanction  of  the  commandment 
to  keep  the  Sabbath  holy ;  and  there  the 
reference  is  to  the  seven-fold  division  of  time, 
and  to  the  finished  work  at  the  end  of  the 
creative  week,  and  not  to  the  length  of  the 
day.  But,  while  the  time-element  is  nowhere 
made  prominent  in  the  Bible,  we  do  find, 
growing  and  bearing  fruit  in  the  Hebrew 
literature,  the  grand  primitive  conceptions  of 
the  Divine  power,  and  law,  the  Divine  wisdom 


*  We  may  say,  however,  with  Tayler  Lewis,  that  in  some  pas- 
sages of  the  Old  Testament  •'  there  evidently  is  a  laboring-  to  set 
forth  the  immensely  prolonged  antiquities  of  the  proceeding." 
8* 


178  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

and  order,  manifest  in  God's  many  wonderful 
works.* 

Tims  far,  then,  we  liave  found  notliing  in 
the  great  leading  truths  of  revelation,  or  in 
the  manner  in  which  they  were  taught,  and  the 
providential  order  of  their  development,  which 
brings  us  into  conflict  with  established  science. 
We  find,  rather,  the  alphabet  of  a  true  reli- 
gious science,  and  the  elements  of  a  growing 
and  helpful  philosophy  of  nature.  We  find 
anticipations  and  hints  of  the  coming  wisdom, 
and  a  great  impulse  to  a  reverent  but  unsuper- 
stitious  study  of  the  manifold  works  of  the 
Creator.  Since  we  have,  in  the  Mosaic  Gene- 
sis, a  rapid  and  most  suggestive  sketch,  for 
our  religious  use,  of  these  few  great  outlines 
of  God's  creative  work,  we  are  not  careful  to 
answer  concerning  any  mere  question  of  de- 
tail. The  fact  that  to  some  proj^het  of  old 
such  a  panorama  of  the  past  was  opened,  the 
first  principles  of  things  disclosed,  the  order 
of  tlie  heavens  and  the  great  outlines  of  the 
vast  drama  of  life  revealed,  is  the  fact  which 
arrests  our  attention,  and  which  compels  the 
confession  that  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  not  the 
grovelling  spirit  of  the  age,  inspired  this 
grand  prophetic  vision  of  the  creation.     The 


*  A  remarkable  illustration  of  this  appears  in  the  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-ninth  Psalm,  verses  13  to  18. 


A  PROPHECY  OF    THE  PAST.  1/9 

historical  wonder  to  us  is,  not  that  the  prophet 
did  not  see  the  succession  of  life  with  a  natu- 
ralist's eye,  but  that  days  followed  days  at 
all  in  his  vision ;  not  that  he  did  not  fill  in 
with  minute  exactness  the  details  of  the  pic- 
ture, but  that  he  beheld  so  much  as  the  out- 
lines of  God's  ways  in  the  creation,  which  we 
are  not  yet  able  to  follow  far  with  scientific 
precision.  No  more  should  be  required  of 
what  is  aptly  called  this  prophecy  of  the  past, 
than  we  are  accustomed  to  demand  of  a  proph- 
ecy of  the  future.  We  have  no  more  good 
reason  to  suppose  that  Moses,  or  an  older  seer, 
saw  or  knew  the  particulars  of  his  vision  of 
the  past  so  that  he  might  have  fixed  each  de- 
tail with  a  precise  word,  than  we  have  to  sup- 
pose that  Isaiah,  or  Daniel,  not  only  foresaw 
a  general  course  and  certain  divinely  ordained 
conclusions  of  history,  but  also  knew  the 
successive  actors,  the  battles,  the  specific 
groupings  of  events,  and  the  times  and  the 
seasons  for  each  successive  coming;  of  the  Son 
of  man  in  history.  They,  at  least,  who  re- 
gard the  literalistic  intepretations  of  the  Sec- 
ond-Adventists  as  a  confusion  of  the  tongues 
of  prophecy,  ought  not  to  apply  their  crass 
methods  of  exegesis  to  the  sublime  Mosaic 
prophecy  of  the  past.  The  outlines  of  God's 
ways  in  the  past  or  future,  the  leading  truths 
and    commanding    principles   of   the    Divine 


l8o  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

government,  determine  the  scope  and  limits 
of  revelation,  whether  of  the  beginning  or  the 
end  of  things.  Providence  makes  no  prema- 
tui-e  waste  of  its  gifts  of  knowledge.  It  was 
necessary  for  Israel  to  know — it  was  neces- 
sary for  the  mission  of  Israel  in  the  w^orld 
that  it  should  know — that  in  the  beginning 
God  was  the  Creator;  that  He  is  the  author 
of  life,  and  the  Father  of  man's  spirit ;  that 
His  work  was  a  work  of  order,  and  the  exe- 
cution of  a  divine  plan ;  but  it  was  not 
necessary  for  Israel  to  know  the  secrets  of  the 
depths  of  the  earth,  in  order  that  it  might  be 
thoroughly  furnished  for  its  providential  mis- 
sion. The  Creator  has  left  many  revelations 
of  his  glory  latent  in  the  nature  of  things 
until  man  shall  need  them,  and  then  Provi- 
dence brings  them  forth.  Some  are  coming 
forth — coming  like  new  words  of  the  Eternal 
— in  these  latter  days. 

We  are  not  anxious,  then,  from  our  educa- 
tional view  of  the  scientific  side  and  tendency 
of  the  Bible,  to  enter  into  a  particular  com- 
parison of  the  Mosaic  account  and  the  last 
geological  table.  They  who  are  curious  to 
learn  the  latest  discrepancies  and  coincidences 
between  geology  and  Genesis,  can  find  the 
subject  treated  in  detail  in  Principal  Dawson's 
recent  book  on  the  "  Orimn  of  the  World." 
Some   of   the  coincidences  which   are   to   be 


GEOLOGY  AND   GENESIS.  l8l 

found  between  the  two,  sucli  as  the  Mosaic  ac- 
count of  the  existence  of  lio:ht  before  the 
creation  of  the  sun,  the  comparatively  late 
appearance  of  mammals  on  the  earth,  and  the 
indication  that  the  great  geological  periods 
were  completed  and  the  world  given  over  to 
the  operation  of  existing  causes  on  the  fourth 
day,  would  seem  to  be  important  confirmations 
of  the  truthfulness  of  the  Mosaic  account. 
Our  chief  hesitation,  however,  in  resting  the 
argument  for  revelation  upon  these  anticipa- 
tions of  science  in  Genesis,  is  the  reflection 
that  neither  Moses,  nor  our  present  science, 
may  in  these  respects  be  infallible;  and  we 
have  much  still  to  learn  concernins:  the  order 
of  the  creation.  These  coincidences  are  in- 
deed remarkable,  and  confirmatory  of  revela- 
tion ;  but  neither  the  special  agreements  nor 
disagreements  of  the  two  records  are  to  us 
the  final  and  commanding  considerations 
The  former  are  not  necessary  to,  and  the  lat 
ter  need  not  be  inconsistent  with,  the  educa 
tional  work  and  progress  of  a  revelation.  In 
deed,  a  caution  is  taught  us  here  by  the  un 
concern  of  the  revel ator  himself  with  regard 
to  the  grouping  of  the  particular  parts  of  his 
vision ;  for  he  is  not  careful  to  follow  in  two 
connected  verses  his  own  arrangement  of  facts 
— in  the  twenty -fifth  verse  he  does  not  copy 
the  arrangement  of  animals  just  given  in  the 


I  82  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

twenty -fourth  verse.  Surely  we  have  no  right 
to  demand  even  of  an  inspired  wi'iter  an  ex- 
actness which  he  does  not  profess  to  give ;  nor 
are  we  to  test  a  revelation  by  truths  mth 
which  it  is  not  concerned. 

Let  us  gather  up,  then,  the  separate  threads 
of  our  reasoning  in  one  conclusion.  The  bibli- 
cal account  of  the  creation  meets  the  necessi- 
ties of__the_ekm^tary^i^^  of  a  race 
chosen  from  idolatrous  surroundings  to  become 
the  bearer  of_a^diyine_  Gospel  to  mankind. 
The  teaching  of  the  Bible,  on  its  scientific  side, 
is  so  free  from  superstition,  so  correct  in  its  un- 
derstanding of  the  alphabet  of  nature,  so  re- 
tentive in  its  grasp  of  the  elementary  truths  of 
tlie  creation — its  spiritual  origin,  its  unity, 
continuity,  and  divine  order — that,  altogether, 
it  presents  a  unique  literary  phenomenon, — one 
which  must  have  a  cause,  but  whose  cause 
does  not  appear  in  the  conditions  of  the  times, 
or  the  historical  environment  of  the  Bible. 
The  simplest  explanation  of  this  literary  won- 
der of  antiquity  (if  upon  other  philosoi^hical 
grounds  we  are  not  prevented  from  giving  it) 
is,  that  some  special  divine  providence  was  at 
the  source  of  this  marvellous  life  in  Israel ; 
that,  in  some  manner  provided  for  in  his  own 
laws,  the  God  of  history  gave  to  the  childi-en 
of  Adam  these  greatly  needed  rudimentary 
lessons  ;  himself,  in  some  of  his  many  open 


SUMMARY.  183 

ways  of  suggestion  to  tlie  soul  of  man, 
taught  the  human  reason  these  elementary 
truths  of  the  creation.  Instead,  therefore,  of 
assuming  an  apologetical  or  dogmatic  attitude 
toward  the  science  of  the  Bible,  as  though  it 
were  something  for  believers  to  stand  up  for 
against  the  apparent  truths  of  nature,  or  else 
to  drop  quietly  out  of  sight,  we  would  advance 
the  scientific  tendency  of  the  Bible,  and  its 
educational  work,  as  a  unique  literary  fact, 
which  affords  a  strong  presumption  that  the 
Bible  was  a  special  object  of  care  on  the  part 
of  the  Divine  Instructor.  We  see  here  signi- 
ficant evidence,  when  all  things  are  fairly  con- 
sidered, that  with  one  chosen  race,  selected  for 
a  special  divine  training  for  the  ultimate  bless- 
ing of  the  whole  world,  there  was  present 
from  the  beginning  a  higher  than  human  wis- 
dom, schooling  it,  bearing  with  it,  educating 
it  with  divine  forethouo-ht  in  those  truths 
which  man  needed  to  learn  by  heart  before  he 
could  be  fitted  to  pass  on  to  the  toils,  and  re- 
sponsibilities, and  knowledge,  of  the  ages  to 
come. 

We  may  feel  some  of  us  personally  toward 
the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  in  particular,  very 
much  as  one  might  feel  toward  an  old  friend 
whom  for  a  time  he  had  come  to  suspect,  and 
to  wish  out  of  sight,  and  from  whom  he  grew 
all  the  more  estranged  by  the  indiscreet  claims 


184  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

of  others  in  his  behalf ;  but  whom  at  length 
he  has  learned  to  know  better,  and  to  take  at 
his  real  worth,  and  has  found  after  rejDeated 
trial  to  be  a  friend  indeed.  Cleared  of  false 
interpretations,  relieved  of  the  suspicions  east 
upon  its  truthfulness  by  imprudent  defenders, 
known  in  its  genuine  worth,  and  prized  for  its 
really  exceptional  virtues  and  grand  character, 
the  Mosaic  Genesis  is  found  to  have  been  all 
the  while  the  firm,  steadfast  friend  both  of 
science  and  religion. 

The  moral  progress  of  the  religion  of  the 
Bible  which  we  considered  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  and  the  scientific  tendency  of  the 
Bible  which  we  have  just  been  estimating, 
taken  together,  indicate  a  great  historical  pro- 
cess of  revelation.  There  seems  to  be  a  his- 
toi'ical  development  of  something  which  is  not 
given  by  history  itself.  Within  the  natural, 
there  are  signs  of  a  supernatural  evolution.  A 
divine  life  is  in  the  world,  working  through 
history,  and  in  a  special  and  altogether  unique 
manner  in  Israel,  for  far-off  ends.  We  have 
seen,  thus  far,  the  signs  of  its  workings  ;  we 
have  still  to  behold  this  divine  power  in  its 
perfect  historical  manifestation,  and  to  follow 
this  supernatural  evolution  to  its  last  and 
highest  consummation. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  CULMINATION  IN  THE  CHEIST :    I.    THE 
UNIQUENESS  OF  JESUS. 

(  The  great  surprise  of  human  history  was 
the  coming  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  uniqueness 
of  his  person  is  an  ultimate  fact  of  Christian- 
ity. Whoever  would  deny  the  presence  of  the 
divine  power  in  human  history  must  first  re- 
duce the  character  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  to  the 
level  of  the  possibilities  of  common  human  na- 
ture. He  is  himself  the  greatest  of  his  miracles.  J 
If  by  close  historical  scrutiny,  or  critical  ques- 
tioning, we  fail  to  resolve  the  miraculous  char- 
acter of  Jesus — the  ultimate  fact  of  Christian- 
ity— into  the  common,  known  elements  of  our 
human  nature ;  if  the  laws  of  heredity  prove 
insufi[icient  to  explain  his  generation;  then, 
the  further  question  will  at  once  arise  whether 
there  may  not  be  other  than  natural  elements 
present  in  human  history,  which  come  to  their 
perfect  flower  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ;  whether 
we  may  not  find  in  the  laws  and  the  forces  of 
a  supernatural  evolution  the  sufficient  expla- 
nation of  his  miraculous  person.  J  If  the  ap- 


1 86  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

pearance  of  Jesus  is  not  natural  in  comparison 
with  other  lives;  if  the  Christ  of  the  Gospel 
seems  to  be  a  miraculous  fact  contrary  to  hu- 
man experience  ;  then,  before  we  throw  aside 
the  historical  evidences  which  centre  in  the 
uniqueness  of  his  person,  and  flow  from  the 
orio-inality  of  his  life,  we  are  at  least  bound 
to  inquire  whether  there  may  not  be  a  broader 
view  of  human  history,  and  a  deeper  science 
of  the  creation,  in  which  w^e  may  find  revealed 
an  unsuspected  and  larger  naturalness  in  this 
greatest  miracle  of  the  ages — the  personality 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

We  have,  then,  at  this  point  of  our  applica- 
tion of  the  new  idea  of  evolution  to  old  faiths, 
to  take  into  consideration,  first,  the  unique- 
ness of  Jesus,  and  then  the  perfect  naturalness 
of  the  Christ  as  the  fulfilment  of  the  whole 
development  of  the  creation. 
[  The  originality  of  Jesus  appears  the  very 
moment  we  bring  the  narratives  of  the  New 
Testament  into  juxtaposition  with  the  known 
lines  of  previous  history.  There  is  an  appar- 
ent break  between  the  two.  The  former  can- 
not, without  historical  violence,  be  bent  into  a 
mere  continuation  of  the  lines  of  the  latter. 
A  fresh  start  is  made  in  Christianity,  under  a 
new  impulse,  in  a  changed  direction.  The 
portraiture  of  Jesus,  as  drawn  by  the  Evan- 
gelists, does  not  seem  to  be  that  of  a  Jewish 


JESUS'   APPEARANCE  A   SURPRISE.       1 87 

face,  or  a  Gentile  countenance ;  nor  does  it 
seem  to  combine  the  j)eculiar  features  of  both 
in  its  own  striking  originality.  A  mere  glance 
at  the  delineation  in  the  Gospels  awakens  this 
feeling  of  surprise  before  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
If,  amid  the  ancestral  pictures  which  hang  upon 
the  walls  of  some  old  English  manor-house, 
and  which  betray  the  same  noble  lineage 
through  many  generations — -the  features  of 
some  far-off  ancestor  reappearing,  perhaps,  in 
the  last  portrait  hung  among  those  of  the  dead 
— we  should  notice  a  face  unlike  all  before  it, 
having  eyes  of  southern  fire,  or  beauty  of  an- 
other clime ;  we  should  at  once  conclude  that 
the  strange  countenance  represented  some  other 
line  of  descent ;  that  its  presence  there  could 
not  be  explained  by  the  laws  of  heredity, 
working  through  the  English  blood ;  and  that 
an  altogether  new  element,  at  that  point,  had 
come  into  the  family  line.  But  in  the  world's 
gallery  of  illustrious  persons,  we  find  intro- 
duced, in  the  portraiture  of  the  Evangelists,  a 
countenance  never  seen  before  on  earth.  It  is 
neither  a  Jewish  nor  a  Gentile  face ;  it  resem- 
bles none  before  it ;  it  is  like  itself  alone. 
From  whence  did  it  come  into  the  human 
family  ? 

Looking  at  it  with  the  closest  scrutiny,  we 
are  unable  to  remove  the  first  impression  of 
strangeness  which  the  portraiture  of  Jesus  in 


1 88  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

the  Gospels  makes  upon  us.  "We  cannot  by 
any  known  law  of  heredity  explain  its  origin 
as  a  possible  Jewish  face.  There  were  ele- 
ments in  the  life  of  Jesus  which  were  not  of 
Je^vish  origin.  Even  Strauss  felt  obliged  to 
look  beyond  Judea  for  the  explanation  of  the 
life  of  Jesus. "^  The  laws  of  descent  fail  ut- 
terly to  account  for  the  coming  of  Jesus  as  a 
mere  Hebrew  child.  He  was  unlike  his  mo- 
ther and  his  brethren — so  unlike  them  that 
his  brethren  did  not  understand  him,  and  his 
mother  wist  not  what  he  would  do.  Though 
he  grew  to  manhood  in  a  quiet  Israelitish 
home,  no  man  ever  thinks  of  calling  him  a 
child  of  Abraham.  Though  living  all  his  life 
among  his  father's  people,  he  never  became  a 
Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews.  Though  inheriting 
the  traditions  of  Israel,  the  Son  of  David  was 
known  as  the  Son  of  man.  Though  never 
walking  beyond  the  mountains  of  his  native 
country,  he  lived  a  life  which  belongs  to  the 
whole  world.  The  contrast  between  Jesus' 
character,  and  the  fixed  Jewish  type,  appears 
at  once  when  we  view  beside  it  the  greatest  of 
the  prophets  who  came  just  before  him,  or  the 
chief  of  the  apostles  who  followed  after  him. 
We  cannot  mistake  the  manner,  the  garb,  the 
voice,  of  the  Israelite  in  the  Baptist.     He  is 


*  Leben  Jesus  fiirs  deutsche  Volk,  s.  206.     167. 


JESUS  NOT  A  HEBRE  W  OF  THE  HEBRE  WS.  1 89 

a  figure  stern  and  wild,  a  prophet  from  the 
dim  past,  who  stands  with  foot  advanced  upon 
the  very  threshold  of  the  new  Dispensation — 
his  strange  garment  half  hidden  in  the  dark- 
ness of  the  night,  but  his  face  catching  the 
glow,  and  his  eager  hand  pointing  to  the  light 
within,  where  the  Bridegroom  rejoices  with 
his  friends.  It  was  not  permitted  him  to 
cross  the  threshold  of  the  new ;  but  the  con- 
trast between  that  unmistakable  Jewish  form, 
standing  with  his  disciples  just  without,  and 
Jesus  sitting  at  meat  with  his  disciples  within, 
the  kingdom  of  God,  marks  the  great  diver- 
gence between  the  most  advanced  Hebrew 
character,  and  the  new  humanity  of  the  Son  \ 
of  man.  In  this  freedom  from  distinctively^ 
Jewish  characteristics,  Jesus  surpasses  even  the 
apostle  whose  Hebrew  habits  had  become  most 
thoroughl}^  revolutionized.  St.  Paul,  long  after 
he  had  become  accustomed  to  speak  of  himself 
as  a  new  man,  to  whom  all  things  had  become 
new,  still  shows  incidental  signs  of  his  Hebrew 
descent.  The  Israelite  appears,  every  now  and 
then,  in  the  Christian.  Had  he  not  told  us, 
we  might  have  known  from  the  peculiarities 
of  his  language  and  manner  in  his  pleas  for 
the  freedom  of  the  Christian  man,  that  once 
Paul  had  been  a  Pharisee.  The  great  Apostle 
of  liberty  is  as  unmistakably  a  Hebrew  of  the 
Hebrews,  as  Luther  was  a  German  of  the  Ger- 


190  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

maris.  But  such  inborn  marks  of  nationality, 
which  manifest  themselves  unconsciously  in 
St.  Paul,  never  attract  our  attention  in  the 
Son  of  man ;  and  that,  too,  although  our  por- 
traiture of  him  was  drawn  by  rude  Jewish 
hands.  Even  while  Jesus  keeps  the  passover 
of  his  people,  he  is  more  than  an  Israelite. 
Even  when  he  observes  the  most  distinctive 
Jewish  customs,  he  keeps  the  law  not  as  a 
Pharisee ;  and  ^vhile  he  uses  the  Aramaic  dia- 
lect of  his  people,  he  speaks  not  as  the  scribes. 
If  the  laws  of  heredity  have  unbroken  sway, 
Jesus  was  not  a  mere  Hebrew  child.  If  nat- 
ural evolution  be  established  science,  Judaism 
does  not  explain  the  birth  at  Bethlehem  of 
the  Son  of  man.  The  Christian  type  is  a  new 
phenomenon  in  Jerusalem.  We  must  look  be- 
yond its  immediate  historical  environment,  be- 
yond Judea,  foi'  its  origin. 

We  are  equally  at  a  loss  if  we  seek  to  de- 
rive the  originalit}^  of  Jesus  from  the  influence 
of  the  Gentiles.  We  do  not  even  know  that 
Jesus,  during  his  quiet  growth  in  wisdom, 
ever  came  under  the  influence  of  Gentile 
modes  of  thought.  The  whole  outlying  world 
did  not  contain  a  philosophy,  or  a  religion,  of 
which  we  can  say  his  doctrine  was  the  natural 
heir.  The  leaven  of  the  Gentiles  in  Judaism 
was  not  the  leaven  of  Christianity.  Jesus' 
doctrine  of  the  kingdom  of  God  had  no  spirit- 


JESUS  AND  HELLENISM.  I9I 

ual   father   in   antiquity  either   in   India   or 
Greece. 

But  if  the  Son  of  man  was  neither  Jew  nor 
Gentile,  may  we  not  suppose  that  his  original- 
ity ma}^  have  been  the  natural  product  of 
some  peculiar  blending,  or  exceptional  union, 
of  the  better  elements  of  both  ?  Here  again 
the  historical  facts  prevent  the  explanation  of 
the  person  of  Jesus  as  the  natural  child  of  two 
races.  We  can  still  trace  in  history  and  phi- 
losophy the  line  where  the  two  civilizations,  the 
East  and  the  West,  and  the  two  minds,  Plato 
and  Moses,  met ;  but  that  line  which  marked 
the  meeting  of  two  great  historical  currents, 
flowing  from  the  opposite  quarters  of  the 
world,  does  not  denote  the  course  followed  by 
the  new  and  mightier  wave.  Christianity  is 
a  risino^  movement  which  crosses  all  existinc: 
currents  of  thouofht,  coincidins:  with  none  ex- 
cept  at  few  points,  and  pursuing  with  gather- 
ing force  its  own  original  impulse.  The 
apocryphal  books  of  Ecclesiasticus,  and  the 
Wisdom  of  Solomon,  mark  the  first  influence  of 
Hellenic  culture  upon  Hebrew  faith.  In  their 
form,  at  least,  we  may,  with  Dean  Stanley,* 
regard  these  writings  as  "  connecting  links  " 
between  the  earlier  Hebrew  literature  and  the 
later  Christian  epistles ;  and  in  this  first  meet- 


*  Jewish  Church,  iii.  296. 


192  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

ing  of  Hellenism  with.  Judaism  we  may  recog- 
nize witli  Ewald,^'  ''  a  premonition  of  John, 
and  ....  a  preparation  for  Paul,  like  a  warm 
rustle  of  spring,  ere  its  time  is  fully  come." 
But  we  know  with  historical  certainty  that  the 
natural  offspring  of  the  union  of  Grecian  phi- 
losophy and  Hebrew  wisdom  was  not  Chris- 
tianity, but  Alexandrian  Judaism.  Its  own 
child  was  not  the  Aj^ostle  to  the  Gentiles,  but 
Philo,  the  Jew.  The  first  logical  outcome  of 
these  two  great  historical  tendencies  was  the 
allegorical  wisdom  of  the  Alexandrian  Jew — 
not  the  mind  that  was  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth. f 
What  the  last  possible  combinations  of  the 
ideas  and  tendencies  of  the  two  worlds  were, 
became  manifest  toward  the  close  of  the  first 
Christian  century  in  the  many-colored  philos- 
ophies of  the  Gnostics.  The  attempt  to  patcli 
together  the  beliefs  of  the  Jews  and  the  ideas 
of  the  Gentiles  resulted  in  a  philosopher's 
cloak  of  many  colors ;  the  doctrine  of  Jesus, 
like  the  garment  which  the  soldiers  divided, 
was  woven  without  seam  throughout 

We  are  reasoning  from  the  observed  forces 
and  laws  of  human  nature.     Take  the  known 


*  HiBtory  of  Israel,  v,  484. 

f  For  an  exhaustive  discussion  of  the  radical  antithesis  be- 
tween Philo  and  the  Christian  idea,  see  Dorner,  History  of  the 
Doctrine  of  the  Person  of  Christ,  i.,  pp.  19,  fE.  The  points  of 
opposition  are  more  popularly  defined  in  Pressense's  Life  of 
Christ,  pp.  77  flf. 


THE  NEW  SPIRIT,  193 

tendencies  of  Judaism,  and  the  known  ideas  of 
the  Gentile  world,  and  combine  them  in  every 
imaginable  manner,  and  Christianity  in  its 
nnity  of  design,  and  transcendent  beauty,  will 
never  come  out  in  your  historical  kaleidoscope. 
Many  incongruous  philosophies,  many  bright, 
grotesque  fancies,  did  result,  when  time  shook 
these  variegated  materials  up  together  in  the 
Roman  Empire ;  but  the  Gospel  which  Jesus 
began  to  preach  in  the  villages  of  Galilee 
never  arose  from  the  dissolving  of  the  old 
Hebrew  faiths,  together  with  Gentile  super- 
stitions, in  the  great  crucible  of  the  world's 
unbelief. 

Grant,  even,  that  in  the  age  which  the  his- 
torian may  recognize  as  the  fulness  of  time, 
materials  for  a  new  nation  and  a  hicrher  re- 
ligion  had  been  brought  together  from  thou- 
sands of  years ;  and  that  these  elements, 
gathered  from  the  four  quarters  of  the  known 
world,  were  waiting  in  the  great  alembic  of 
the  Roman  Empire  to  be  recombined  in  some 
new  form  of  society,  and  purer  faith; — whence 
shall  come  the  electric  flash,  the  heavenly 
spark,  that  shall  precipitate  from  these  con- 
fused and  turbid  times  the  new  era,  and  occa- 
sion the  crystallization  of  a  purer  worship  and 
a  perfect  form  of  society  ?  History  may  ex- 
plain everything  in  Christianity,  except  the 
Spirit  of  Christ.     If  it  can  number  the  ele- 


194  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

nients  of  this  world  which  were  met  in  Judea, 
it  has  still  to  account  for  the  force  which  or- 
ganized them  in  the  Church.  The  new  Life 
is  beyond  the  analysis  of  historical  chemistry. 
The  creative  Spirit  that  was  in  Christ  is  the 
super-historical  and  divine  principle  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

As  a  last  possible  naturalistic  explanation 
of  the  appearance  of  the  Son  of  man  in  Judea, 
it  might  be  suggested  that  the  spirit  of  the 
older  prophecy  ^vas  raised  from  the  dead  in 
Jesus  to  neAvness  of  life;  that  Christianity 
struck  its  roots  down  deep  through  the  tradi- 
tions of  Judaism  into  the  livins:  fountains  of 
Israel's  earlier  and  better  faith.  We  are  far 
from  denyino^  the  relationship  between  the 
spirit  of  Christ  and  the  spirit  of  prophecy ; 
we  shall  return  to  this  as^ain  in  our  account  of 
his  appearing.  But  the  spirit  of  prophecy 
affords  no  explanation  of  the  historical  Jesus. 
The  laws  of  heredity  forbid  the  supposition 
of  a  leap,  even  of  spiritual  genius,  entirely  out 
of  the  conditions  of  its  own  age,  across  cen- 
turies, into  alien  and  vanished  modes  of 
thought.  The  Book  of  Isaiah  does  not  yield 
a  sufficient  cause  for  the  actual  Messianic  life 
of  Jesus.  He  was  not  another  Elias,  nor  is 
Christianity  to  be  conceived  of  as  a  return  to 
the  great  prophetic  age  of  Israel ; — as  the  Prot- 
estant Reformation  was  a  return  to   a  more 


THE  NEW  SPIRIT.  1 95 

primitive  Christianity,  and  as  Luther  had  the 
work  of  the  great  Apostle  before  him  for  an 
example.  Jesus  brings  in  his  own  Gospel  the 
truth  which  unites,  and  makes  alive,  in  one 
personal  reality,  the  broken  conceptions,  the 
scattered  members,  of  the  prophetic  image  of 
the  Messiah.  His  life  was  not  a  copy  of  any 
Messianic  portrait.  It  was  the  original  in  com- 
parison with  which  all  the  portraits  of  the 
coming  Messiah  drawn  by  the  prophet's  hands 
look  like  copies,  themselves  imperfect,  and 
not  alike,  and  marked  by  discordant  features. 
In  the  Divine  original  alone  all  incongruities 
of  the  copies  are  harmonized.  That,  says  tlie 
Evangelist,  who  had  beheld  his  glory,  was  the 
true^  that  is,  the  genuine^  the  original  Light 
which  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into 
the  world. 

It  may  be  said,  indeed,  that  Jesus  possessed 
the  exalted  spiritual  genius  to  see  and  to  sat- 
isfy the  deepest  want  of  his  age,  and  of  all 
ages.  But  even  a  happy  phrase  is  not  of  itself 
sufficient  to  solve  a  great  historical  problem  ; 
and  our  problem  is,  whence  came,  and  of  what 
manner  of  spirit  was,  this  unexampled  re- 
ligious genius  of  Jesus  ?  It  is  true  that  the 
scholasticism  of  the  rabbis  did  not  meet  the 
wants  of  the  people ;  and  the  uprisals  of  the 
zealots  had  only  plunged  into  deeper  despair 
the  national  expectation.     It  is  true  that  in 


19^  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

the  gathering  gloom,  here  and  there,  the  old 
Messianic  hope  seemed  to  be  rekindled.  But 
our  question,  which  cannot  be  put  aside  by  a 
form  of  words,  is,  how  did  it  come  to  pass 
that  a  religious  enthusiast  had  the  "  spiritual 
genius  "  to  rise  above  all  ancestral  limitations  ; 
to  see  that  the  only  way  to  save  the  life  of  his 
nation  was  to  lose  it ;  to  teach  a  salvation  of  the 
Jews  so  novel  in  its  conception,  and  so  alien  to 
the  tradition  of  the  law,  as  to  unite  both  the 
learned  and  the  aristocratic  parties  at  Jerusa- 
lem in  a  common  hatred  against  him ;  and  to 
seek  to  attain  the  hope  of  that  salvation  by 
methods  so  unworldly  as  to  cause  the  patriotic 
zealots  to  forsake  his  standard,  and  to  lead  the 
priests  and  people  in  their  disappointed  rage 
to  fill  the  court  of  the  Roman  governor  with 
the  despairing  cry,  "We  have  no  king  but 
Caesar,"  "  Crucify  him,  crucify  him  !  "  * 

But  let  us  bring  these  first  and  general  im- 
pressions of  the  superhuman  originality  of 
Jesus  to  more  searching  proof. 

The  power  and  life  of  Jesus  were  neither 
Jewish,  nor  Grecian,  nor  a  combination  of  the 
diverse  elements  thrown  together  by  the  Ro- 


*  As  Pressense  has  observed,  the  "  Fourth  book  of  Esdras  shows 
.  .  .  the  chasm  which  separates  the  ideal  of  Jesus  Christ  from 
that  of  the  Jews  of  his  time.  The  book  of  Enoch  represents  the 
popular  conception  in  its  designation  of  the  Messianic  reign  as  the 
era  of  the  sword. 


THE  MORAL    TEACHING    OF   JESUS.       197 

man  state ;  but  they  were  above  and  beyond 
the  known  tendencies  and  forces  of  human 
nature  in  the  following  striking  particulars : 

1.  We  begin  with  that  aspect  of  Jesus'  min- 
istry in  which  he  was  most  like  others — his 
moral  teaching.  In  the  broad  historical  retro- 
spect, now  clearing  up  before  the  new  science 
of  comparative  religion,  it  is  certainly  a  pleas- 
ure for  one  v/ho  believes  in  the  omnipresence 
of  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  and  in  the  religious 
nature  of  man,  to  discover  that  the  large, 
catholic  prophecy  of  the  last  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets  *  was  not  wholly  a  vision  of  distant 
futurity ;  that,  even  while  he  heralded  the 
coming  in  Judea  of  the  '^messenger  of  the 
Lord,"  "  from  the  risino^  to  the  settino^  of  the 
sun,"  the  "  incense  in  every  place  "  was  ascend- 
ing, and  many  "  pure  offerings  "  were  brought 
to  the  adorable  name  which  all  religions  strive 
to  express,  and  which  the  chief  of  Apostles 
confessed  that  he  knew  only  part. 

But,  among  those  chosen  of  God  from  every 
nation,  Jesus  is  the  Teacher  sent  from  God. 
His  inimitable  moral  originality  appears  to 
the  best  advantage  when  compared  with  those 
very  fore-gleams  and  reflections  of  his  teach- 
ing which  bear  the  closest  resemblance  to  it. 
Print  in  parallel  columns  the  choice  sayings  of 


♦  MaL  i.  11. 


V 


198  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

those  who  have  served  God  in  every  nation,  and 
the  woi^ds  of  Jesus, — and,  as  we  read,  the  very 
similarity  i-eveals  the  difference.  A  spirit  not 
of  this  world ;  a  light  from  afar ;  a  subtle 
quality,  not  easily  defined,  but  felt  as  the 
veiy  life  of  Jesus'  moral  teaching,  lead  us  in- 
stinctively to  recognize  in  him  One  who  spake 
as  never  man  spake.  The  precepts  alike  of 
the  rabbis  and  the  philosophers,  when  taken 
up  in  Jesus'  teaching,  receive  a  different  set- 
ting, and  a  more  heavenly  light  is  in  them.  A 
diamond  in  a  dark  or  dimly-lighted  room  is 
not  the  same  thing  as  a  diamond  in  the  track 
of  a  sunbeam.  We  see  in  the  Gospels  the 
purest  morality  of  the  Gentiles  taken  out  of 
darkness  and  uncertainty,  and  held  up  in  the 
light  of  a  new  revelation.  Jesus'  teaching  is 
man's  moral  truth  with  a  ray  of  heaven  play- 
ing through  it. 

A  recent  writer  *  has  gathered  the  results 
of  nearly  ten  3^ears'  study  of  the  Talmud  into 
a  collection  of  those  rabbinical  sayings  which 
have  any  analogy  to  the  Gospels.  The  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount,  when  read  thus,  in  the 
midst  of  the  rabbinical  lore,  seems  like  the 
new  wine  when  put  into  the  old  bottles.  The 
best   morality  of    the   rabbins   smacks   of   a 


*  Wunsche  :  Neue  Beitrage  ziir  Erlauterungen  der  Evangelium 
aus  Talmud. 


THE  MORAL    TEACHING    OF   JESUS.       199 

prudential  virtue ;  it  is  not  better  than  the 
wisdom  of  Solomon ;  but  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  imparts  to  morality  the  essence  of 
spiritual  truth.  A  greater  than  Solomon  is 
here.  The  Talmudic  literature  yields  but  a 
distant  and  indistinct  e(:lio  of  the  blessing 
pronounced  upon  the  pure  in  heart ;  and  if  we 
seek  for  any  approach  in  the  traditions  of  the 
scribes  to  the  simple  yet  deep  ethical  truth  of 
Jesus,  "  Whosoever  will  save  his  life  shall  lose 
it,"  we  can  find  nothino;  better  than  Hillel's 
clever  warnino;  ao-ainst  the  ambition  of  the 
pharisee  overleaping  itself,  "  Whoso  spreads 
out  his  calling  shall  lose  it."  The  negative 
precept  of  the  Grecian  sage,  and  of  the  most 
human  of  the  rabbis,  Jesus  makes  the  golden 
rule  of  the  world.*  While  the  scribes  were 
repeating  the  saying  of  Hillel,  "  No  unedu- 
cated man  easily  avoids  sin;  no  man  of  the 
people  can  be  pious ;  "  the  common  people 
heard  gladly  One  who  made  publicans  and 
sinners  his  disciples  and  friends. 

If  we  compare,  not  merely  single  precepts, 
but  the  moral  doctrine  of  Jesus  as  a  whole 
with  the  ethics  of  the  Gentiles,  we  observe 
that,  while  separate  threads  may  be  easily 
matched,  and   particular    sayings    may    corre- 

*  Stanley's  Jewish  Church,  iii.,  p,  507.  Dean  Stanley  hears, 
amid  the  trivial  casuistry  of  Hillel,  "  faint  accents  of  a  generous 
and  universal  theology." 


200  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

spond,  still  the  general  pattern  of  liis  teaching 
is  unlike  any  other ;  the  design  is  original ; 
and  the  whole  fabric  is  taken  out  of  uncertain 
and  confusing  lights,  and  held  up  in  the  sun- 
shine. The  one-sided  intellectualism  of  the 
Greek  ethics;  the  inability  of  the  Pagan 
morals  to  rise  above  the  barriers  of  natural 
condition  and  race  to  a  true  spiritual  concep- 
tion of  man's  birthright,  unity,  and  destiny ; 
the  essentially  political  conception  of  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  when  the  instinct  of  hu- 
manity did  lead  to  the  Stoic  idea  of  the  one 
universal  state  ;  the  want  of  the  idea  of  a 
kingdom  of  God,  or  power  to  realize  any  spir- 
itual conception  of  man  in  society  ;  these,  and 
other  limitations  like  these,  mark  the  radical 
and  world-wide  difference  between  the  best 
moral  teaching  of  antiquity,  and  the  new, 
transforming  doctrine  which  Jesus  began  to 
preach  in  one  of  the  obscurest  provinces  of  the 
Eoman  Empire.*  ^X^ 

Greece  had  perfected  a  crystalline  language 
to  contain  the  new  truth ;  the  philosophers 
brought  much  beaten  oil ;  but  Jesus  by  the 
power  of  His  spirit  converted  the  oil  into 
light. 

And,  above  all,  the  absolute  peculiarity  of 


*  See  Neander's  thorough  discussion  of  "  The  Relation  of  the 
Hellenic  to  Christian  Ethics," — Wissenshaftliche  Abhandlungen. 


THE  MORAL   IDEA    OF   THE   GOSPELS.     20I 

Jesus  as  a  teacher  was  the  manner  in  which 
he  made  the  knowledge  of  truth  the  means  to 
something  beyond  itself,  and  never  the  end  of 
his  teaching.     Truth  with  him  is  not  an  end  ; 
it  is  the  way  to  life.     Truth  is  like  the  light 
which  shines,  not  that  it  may  be  seen,  but  that 
in  it  we  may  see  the  realities  of  the  world. 
The  philosophers  were   content  to  show  the 
truth;    Jesus,   through  the    truth,   shows  the 
Father.     Hence   everything  in  his  Gospel  is 
intensely  personal  and  real.     He  is  himself,  in 
his    oneness    with    the    Father,    the   doctrine. 
Trust  in  his  Person,  not  belief  in  a  dogma,  is 
the  condition  of  discipleship.     In  his  Gospel 
nature  answers  to  nature,  and  God  is  at  one 
with  man.     Jesus  leaves  his  disciples  in  the 
communion  of  the  Spirit ;  and  this  divine  real- 
ism of  his  teaching  (if  one  may  put  into  a  sin- 
gle word  this  marvellous  characteristic  of  it) 
made  a  vital  impression  upon  the  hearts  of 
the  disciples,  which  they  never  lost,  for  hence- 
forth with  them  '*  to  know  the  truth  "  was  to 
have  "  eternal  life." 

2.  The  moral  ideal  of  the  Gospels  was  pecu- 
liarly Jesus'  own.  The  good  man  of  Jesus' 
parables  was  not  the  good  man  of  the  world's 
admiration.  His  ideal  was  different  even  from 
the  ideal  righteous  man  of  the  prophets,  for, 
according  to  his  own  saying,  the  least  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  was  greater  than  the  great- 
9* 


202  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

est  of  tlie  prophets.  The  central  and  formative 
principles  of  Jesus'  ideal  of  goodness  were  not 
those  upon  which  any  type  of  charactBr  had 
ever  been  created  before.  Not  merely  higher 
degrees  of  virtue,  but,  in  some  respects,  a  new 
kind  of  goodness  sprang  up  in  the  path  of 
Christianity."^*  Humility,  with  Jesus,  is  the 
lowly  source  of  the  virtues.  The  two  con- 
nected words,  repent  and  believe,  marked  the 
two  polar  duties  upon  which  the  new  Chris- 
tian type  of  character  was  to  be  formed ;  but 
the  centre  of  the  whole  is  love.  Love  is  the 
central  and  formative  virtue  of  Christian 
ethics  and  theology, — not  the  Platonic  idea  of 
justice,  nor  the  magnanimity  of  Aristotle,  nor 
the  self-abnegation  of  Buddha.  Love  is  the 
divine  centre  of  the  moral  ideal  of  Jesus,  and 
around  that  living  heart  of  goodness  the  vir- 
tues grow  in  their  order  and  perfectness.  It 
is  an  evident  historical  fact,  that  Jesus  intro- 
duced a  new  creative  principle  of  character. 
Distinct  and  clearly  outlined  as  the  Christian 
character  has  been,  and  is,  in  comparison  with 
all  other  types  of  goodness,  Jewish  or  Gentile, 
ancient  or  modern ;  so  unique  and  divinely 
original  was  the  first  creative  thought  of  it  in 
the  mind  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.     What  science 


*  See  Matheson  :   Article,    ''  Originality  of  the   Character  of 
Jesus  Christ,"  Contemporary  Review,  November,  1878. 


THE  METHOD    OF   JESUS.  203 

shall  declare  the  generation  of  that  creative 
thought  of  Jesus  ? 

(  3.  The  constructive  method  of  Jesus  was 
comparatively  new.  It  is  one  of  the  redeem- 
ing merits  of  Matthew  Arnold's  "Literature 
and  Dogma,"  that  it  briugs  out  clearly  this 
new  and  distinctive  method — "  the  secret  of 
Jesus."  He  beo^ins  his  work  within  the  heart. 
The  later  prophets  had  been  taught  something 
of  this  natural  method  of  righteousness,  but 
in  Jesus  the  new  method  of  the  heart  comes 
to  perfection.  It  is  that  perfect  method 
of  righteousness  which  substitutes  good  for 
evil  in  the  heart.  Keligion,  with  Jesus,  not  only 
sweeps  the  house,  but  it  opens  the  windows 
and  lets  the  sunshine  in.  It  peoples  the  soul 
with  new  j)urposes.  It  makes  its  chambers 
echo  with  new  and  innocent  joys.  It  brings 
in  new  affections.  The  comino-  of  relis^ion  to 
the  soul  is  like  opening  a  deserted  house,  and 
filling  it  with  the  laughter  of  children's  voices. 
This,  at  least,  was  Jesus'  own  method,  how- 
ever men,  in  later  ages,  may  have  lost  his  sim- 
ple art  of  winning  souls.  The  fact  that  his 
own  Church  has  too  often  forgotten  his  secret, 
and  that  his  own  prophets  never  fully  attained 
to  it,  shows  how  divinely  original  Jesus'  per- 
fect method  with  his  disciples  really  was. 
But  how,  we  ask,  could  one  in  whom,  on  the 
supposition    of    a   merely    natui'al    evolution, 


204  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

were  accumulated,  by  tlie  inevitable  laws  of 
heredity,  the  traditional  methods  of  genera- 
tions of  scribes,  and  the  marked  peculiarities  of 
the  Jewish  race,  have  fallen  all  at  once,  easily, 
to  the  utter  astonishment  of  his  contemporaries, 
into  the  new  method  of  Jesus  ?  It  had  not 
been  treasured  up  in  the  customs  of  his  peo- 
ple, nor  could  it  have  been  learned  in  the 
schools.  Even  his  chosen  disciples  were  slow 
of  heart  to  understand  it.  It  was  Jesus'  own 
method ;  it  came  to  him  spontaneously,  as  the 
flowering  of  a  plant.  It  was  the  natural  blos- 
soming of  his  own  life, — what  science  shall 
tell  how  it  grew  ? 

4.  The  plan  of  Jesus  was  original.  Its  ob- 
ject was  the  establishment  of  a  kingdom  of 
which  no  one  in  the  world  but  Jesus  had 
dreamed.  The  first  step  in  its  execution  was 
the  refusal  of  the  usual  modes  of  winning  suc- 
cess. Judas  was  soon  disappointed  and  pro- 
voked by  the  utter  strangeness  of  the  Master's 
manner  of  gaining  a  kingdom.  Jesus,  from  the 
first,  marked  out  for  himself  a  way  of  life 
which  was  sure  to  cross,  again  and  again,  the 
paths  trodden  by  all  other  men.  He  followed 
out  his  singular  plan  of  life  by  rejecting  the 
favor  of  the  chief  among  the  people,  and  turn- 
ing from  the  temptation  of  the  kingdoms  of 
this  world,  and  choosing  for  his  helpers  and 
friends  men  without  power,  wealth,  or  influ- 


THE  PLAN   OF    JESUS  205 

ence,  who  possessed  nothing  but  the  desire  to 
learn  of  him,  and  the  willingness  to  receive  the 
training  of  his  spirit.  He  finished  his  novel 
plan  of  life  by  giving  himself  up  to  death,  ^vhen 
one  single  word  of  denial  of  his  mission  would 
have  set  him  free.  So  anomalous,  so  contrary 
to  all  maxims  of  common-sense,  was  the  plan 
of  Jesus,  that  some  recent  writers  have  en- 
deavored to  regard  him  as  a  religious  enthusi- 
ast, a  good  man  deceived  by  his  own  dreams, 
and  allured  by  some  wild  illusion  to  a  life 
which  a  soberer  judgment  might  have  foreseen 
would  surely  end  in  disappointment,  rejection 
by  the  world,  and  death  ;  and  that  too,  al- 
though we  are  told  by  those  who  were  best 
acquainted  with  him  that  he  knew  what  was 
in  man,  and  though,  from  beginning  to  end,  his 
life,  through  all  its  eventful  scenes,  seems  to 
move  on  full  of  purpose,  and  with  thoughtful 
anticipation,  to  its  tragic  close.  His  was  a  plan 
which  looked  calmly  forward  to  the  end  of 
time.  Everything  in  Jesus'  words  has  this  far 
look  forward.  His  plan  of  life  involved  his 
death,  and  the  coming  of  another  dispensation. 
Rationalism  can  escape  from  the  impression  of 
divine  originality  left  by  the  plan  of  Jesus 
only  by  making  the  mind  of  Jesus  a  chimera, 
a  psychological  impossibility.     ^ 

5.  The  life  of  Jesus  as  portrayed   in   the 
Gospels  was  unique  in  the  absence  from  it  of 


206  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

traits  common  to  other  lives.  There  are  cer- 
tain negative  characteristics  of  the  teaching  of 
Jesus,  as  contained  in  the  New  Testament, 
which,  on  the  supposition  of  a  merely  natural 
evolution  of  Christian  doctrine,  are,  to  say  the 
least,  very  curious.  It  remains  for  naturalism 
to  exjDlain  how  certain  peculiarities  and  limi- 
tations of  the  prophetic  teaching  quietly  dis- 
appear from  the  perfect  law  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament ;  and  also  how  it  happened  that  there 
are  no  traces  of  certain  prevalent  Aryan  con- 
ceptions to  be  found  in  Gospels  which  natural- 
ism would  account  for  as  the  product  of  an 
age  in  which  Aryan  and  Semitic  ideas  met  in 
new  combinations.  How  happened  it  that 
Jesus'  doctrine  of  sin,  for  example,  escaped 
the  taint  of  asceticism,  and  of  that  conception 
of  evil,  then  not  unknown  within  as  well  as 
Avithout  Palestine,  which  regarded  matter  as 
the  abode  of  corruption  ?  '^'  The  negative  vir- 
tues of  Christian  doctrine  are  a  peculiar  excel- 
lence of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  with  regard  to 
which  much  more  might  be  said.  It  is,  to  say 
the  least,  singular,  if  Christianity  were  the  nat- 
ural product  of  the  age  in  which  it  sprang  up, 
that  it  escaped  so  much  evil  and  error  which 
were  in  the  very  soil,  and  in  the  air,  of  the  land 
where  the  Gospel  was  first  preached. 


♦  Tulloch  :  Ch.  Doct.  of  Sin,  p.  109. 


THE  SINLESSNESS   OF   JESUS.  20y 

I  miglit  notice  here,  also,  the  absence  of  any 
appearance  of  eclecticism  in  the  character  of 
Jesus.  Had  the  Gospel  been  originally,  as 
some  modern  critics  labor  to  make  it,  a  mere 
patchwork  of  sentiments  of  the  philosophers, 
and  notions  of  the  sects,  put  together  by 
many  hands,  after  the  general  Roman  idea  of  a 
world-empire ;  it  would  have  shown  upon  its 
very  surface  the  seams  and  the  stitches,  the 
sio^ns  and  unmistakable  marks  of  its  fabrica- 
tion  from  materials  so  diversified ;  it  would 
never  have  deceived  the  world  as  the  simple 
Gospel.  Whatever  Jesus  of  Nazareth  may 
have  been,  he  certainly  was  not  a  religious 
eclectic. 

But  I  turn  from  these  minor,  yet  significant, 
negative  considerations,  to  view  that  charac- 
teristic of  Jesus'  life  which,  by  common  con- 
sent, is  one  of  the  most  superhuman  peculiari- 
ties of  it — his  sinlessness.  The  marks  of  pas- 
sion, of  weakness,  of  pride,  of  the  love  of 
popularity,  and  the  consequent  lack  of  moral 
courage,  of  a  thousand  infirmities  of  the  flesh, 
some  of  which  we  notice  in  all  other  men,  are 
certainly  not  obvious,  or  any  where  forced  upon 
our  recognition,  in  the  life  and  conversation 
which  is  mirrored  in  the  four  Gospels.  On 
the  contrary/ Jesus  was  not  only  followed  and 
loved,  but,  by  those  who  knew  him  best,  he 
was  worshipped  before  he  died. 


208  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

The  apotheosis  of  this  man  took  place  in  his 
lifetime,  and  not  as  an  empty  imperial  honor, 
but  as  a  real  adoration  of  the  glory  beheld  in 
him  by  a  disciple  who  leaned  upon  his  bosom, 
and  among  the  friends  who  were  acquainted 
with  his  whole  manner  of  life.  For  him  no 
friend  ever  apologized ;  and  no  enemy  con- 
vinced him  of  sin.  Modern  infidelity  must  be 
pushed  to  extremities  before  it  will  venture  to 
turn  and  cast  any  reproach  upon  the  name 
which  still,  in  the  reverence  of  the  Christian 
world,  is  above  every  name,  full  of  an  ideal 
lio-ht.  But  how  shall  the  laws  of  natural  de- 
scent  declare  the  generation  of  a  seemingly 
sinless  character?  Let  any  one  read  some 
careful  scientific  statement  of  the  laws  of 
heredity,  and  then  read  Ullmann's  classic  book 
on  "  The  Sinlessness  of  Jesus ;  "  or,  better  still, 
read  the  Evangelists'  simple  portrayal  of  his 
daily  life  ;  and  either  he  must  deny  undeniable 
science,  or  overcome  the  weight  of  historical 
evidence,  or  else  seek  for  some  other  than  phys- 
ical cause,  some  deeper  than  natural  necessity, 
for  the  coming  to  this  earth  of  the  sinless  Son 
of  man. 

6.  It  is  the  unique  life  in  its  power.  What- 
ever may  be  our  belief  concerning  miracles, 
enough  of  the  Gospels,  on  the  most  unfavor- 
able view  of  their  authenticity,  must  be  ad- 
mitted  to  be  historical,  to  show  that  we  have 


THE  POWER    OF    JESUS.  209 

to  do  here  with  a  life  full  to  overflowine  with 
peculiar  and  wonderful  power.  Even  if  we 
should  discredit  the  narratives,  and  be  dis- 
posed to  regard  them  as  myths  or  legends, 
nevertheless  their  peculiarities  as  myths  would 
point  to  a  Being  at  the  source  of  them  wholly 
without  parallel  or  example  in  the  catalogue 
of  great  legendary  heroes.  The  kind  of  won- 
derful works  related,  the  circumstances  and 
conditions,  the  objects  and  moral  aim,  of  the 
miracles  which  Jesus  is  said  to  have  per- 
formed, constitute  a  group  of  events  which, 
even  on  the  mythical  hypothesis  itself,  distin- 
guish the  Gospels  sharply  and  broadly  from 
all  other  mythologies.  The  peculiar  moral 
quality,  the  unearthly  virtue,  of  the  miracles 
of  Jesus  at  once  arrest  attention,  and  stamp 
them  with  a  signature  all  their  own.  More- 
over, another  singular  characteristic  of  these 
narratives  is  the  self-restraint  and  perfect 
poise  of  the  miracle- worker  amid  his  wonder- 
ful works.  No  word  or  hint  of  excitement  or 
surprise  on  the  part  of  Jesus  at  his  own 
mighty  works  has  come  down  to  us,  although 
the  narratives  are  often  so  detailed  and  graphic 
as  to  reproduce  his  very  gestures  and  tones. 
Jesus  never  was  seen  standing  for  a  moment  in 
surprise  before  his  own  miracles.  They  seem 
to  be  perfectly  natural  to  him.  He  does  them 
apparently  as  easily  and  as  naturally  as  we 


2IO  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

pei-form  our  everyday  acts  of  interference 
with  the  general  laws  of  nature.  The  disci- 
ples, upon  their  first  exercise  of  the  Master's 
power,  came  running  back  in  ej:citement,  re- 
joicing that  the  spirits  were  made  subject  unto 
them.  Jesus  does  not  share  their  astonish- 
ment, but  calms  and  hallows  their  thoughts  by 
remindino;  them  of  a  better  reason  for  their 
joy.  He  never  seems  to  have  mistaken  his 
power ;  to  have  attempted  more  than  he  could 
perform ;  or  to  have  been  astonished  at  his 
own  success,  when  all  men  marvelled  at  him. 
It  is  remarkable,  also,  that  one  who  could  do 
so  much  as  Jesus  is  reported  to  have  done, 
should  not  have  done  more  mighty  works. 
The  self-restraint  of  Jesus  in  the  exercise  of 
his  superior  power  is  one  of  the  signs  of  the 
divineness  of  his  power.  He  never  performs 
a  miracle  for  mere  effect ;  never  uses  his  sig- 
nal power  for  display ;  never  abuses  it  to 
strike  terror  into  his  enemies,  or  even  to  save 
himself  ;  always  holds  it  under  the  control  of 
his  higher  spiritual  purpose,  and  makes  mirac- 
ulous power  serve  heavenly  love.  This  moral 
control  of  marvellous  power,  preserved  through- 
out the  ministry  of  Jesus,  is  an  indication  of 
the  divine  originality  of  his  life  of  great  signi- 
ficance. 
f  But,  irrespective  of  the  miracle-working  of 
Jesus,  his  power  is  altogether  an  unparalleled 


THE  POWER    OF    JESUS.  211 

fact  in  history.  A  new  era  dates  from  his 
birth.  His  coming,  as  Dr.  Sears  has  well  said,* 
was  "  a  new  influx  of  power."  Jesus  seems  to 
concentrate  in  his  own  person  the  great  con- 
structive forces  of  religion.  Proj^hecy,  before 
him,  had  been  more  than  a  destructive  energy. 
It  had  begun  to  build.  Prophecy  in  Greece  was 
only  ^'  a  voice,  a  song  ;  "  in  Israel  it  was  an 
architect  and  builder.f  It  founded  a  nation; 
built  a  state ;  made  straight  over  mountains, 
and  across  valleys,  a  highway  for  the  Lord. 
These  creative  forces  of  religion  in  Israel  cul- 
minate^  and  are  endowed  with  new  and  marvel- 
lous power,  in  the  ministry  of  Jesus.  His 
spirit  is  the  great  constructive  principle  and 
power  of  modern  history.  It  was  his  wonder- 
ful work  to  create  in  the  Koman  Empire  a  new 
faith,  a  new  hope,  and  a  new  joy.  The  belief 
in  immortality  became  through  him  in  Judea, 
what  it  never  had  been  at  Athens  or  Eome,  a 
living,  working  faith,  which  transformed  this 
earth,  and  transfigured  death.  The  greatness 
of  this  change,  and  the  marvel  of  the  power 
which  wrought  it,  may  be  appreciated  at  a 
glance  by  the  traveller  -vvho  walks  through  that 
corridor  in  the  Vatican,  where,  upon  one  wall 
have  been  placed  pagan  burial  tablets  and  in- 


*  The  Fourth  Gospel. 

f  Mozley  :  Ruling  Ideas,  pp.  17,  18. 


212  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

scrip tions,  witli  symbols  of  the  pursuits  in 
whicli  the  departed  delighted  before  death 
quenched  life's  torch,  and  words  of  fond  rec- 
ollection of  earthly  scenes  scarce  broken  by 
any  anticipations  of  joy  among  the  shades  be- 
low ;  and  where,  upon  the  opposite  wall,  have 
been  placed  inscriptions  taken  from  the  Cata- 
combs, with  their  benedictions  of  peace  and 
their  emblems  of  hope,  the  ascending  bird  with 
the  olive  bough,  or  the  ship  sailing  into  the 
sky.  ^ 

This  unexampled  power  of  Jesus  was  crea- 
tive, likewise,  of  a  new  humanity.  It  poured 
its  fresh,  renewing  streams  through  all  the 
channels  of  social  life.  Modern  society,  as  well 
as  modern  history,  dates  from  the  advent  of 
Christ.  We  ought  to  glance,  at  least,  in  this 
connection,  at  the  contrast  between  the  moral 
decrepitude  of  the  pagan  world,  and  the 
Christian  restoration  of  society.  Ecclesiasti- 
cal writers  have  sometimes  been  accused  of  in- 
dulging in  a  too  sweeping  condemnation  of  the 
popular  morality  of  the  pagan  world ;  and 
there  is  certainly  a  brighter  side  of  life  in  the 
later  Roman  Empire,  which  Mr.  Lecky  and 
other  writers,  who  are  disposed  to  keep  as 
much  as  possible  on  the  sunny  side  of  the 
street  in  their  walks  through  Rome,  will  not 
suffer  us  to  overlook.  But  the  pages  of  Taci- 
tus grow  dark  with  the  increasing  gloom  of  a 


THE    OLD   SOCIETY.  213 

history  of  crimes,  and  St.  Paurs  condemna- 
tion of  Roman  morals  finds  its  confirmation  in 
more  than  one  revelation  of  the  buried  life  of 
Pompeii.  "  Could  we  have  seen  depicted  the 
inner  life  of  that  brilliant  period,"  so  Prof. 
Jowett*  thinks,  "  we  should  have  turned  away 
from  the  sight  with  loathing  and  detestation." 
Undoubtedly  there  were  better  elements  in 
the  midst  of  the  growing  corruption,  and,  in 
that  age  of  easy  divorces,  inscriptions  on  some 
burial  tablets  still  tell  the  pleasant  story  of 
life-lonof  faithfulness  and  affection.  But  the 
sentiments  of  the  philosophers,  and  examples 
of  individual  virtue,  were  powerless  to  per- 
vade a  fermenting  and  decaying  society  with 
the  leaven  of  a  new  spirit.  While  the  rabbis  ^ 
of  Jerusalem  were  uttering  fine  praises  of  hu- 
mility, the  Pharisees  were  making  broad  their 
phylacteries.  While  Hillel's  voice  still  was 
heard  in  the  temple,  reminding  the  prudent 
disciple  to  take  his  seat  one  or  two  places  be- 
low the  position  belonging  to  him,  the  scribes 
w^ere  jostling  one  another  in  their  eagerness  to 
seek  the  uppermost  seats  in  the  synagogue. 
While  the  philosophers  at  Rome  were  dis- 
coursing loftily  of  virtue,  vice  was  growing 
too  common  to  be   talked  of   as  a  scandal. f 


*  Ep.  of  St.  Paul,  p.  77. 
f  Mommsen,  iv.  618. 


214  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

While  the  rhetoricians  were  preaching  morals, 
slavery  was  heaping  up  its  iniquities,  and  la- 
bor sinking  into  disgrace.  While  the  Roman 
law  was  giving  woman  greater  rights,  the 
family  was  losing  its  sanctity,  and  marriage 
becoming  a  commercial  contract.  While  the 
poets  were  still  singing  of  fidelity  and  love, 
divorces  from  marriages,  which  had  been  con- 
tracted without  the  bonds  of  religion,  were 
matters  of  daily  occurrence;  and  men  im- 
mersed in  sensuality,  and  overwhelmed  by  ex- 
travagance, could  hardly  be  induced  to  take 
wives  even  by  the  bounties  decreed  to  husbands 
by  Augustus.  While  sentiments  of  humanity 
were  cultivated  in  literature,  even  Cato  did 
not  scruple  to  sell  his  old  and  worthless  ser- 
vants ;  not  infrequent  exhibitions  of  cruelty 
gave  occasion  for  Juvenal's  satirical  picture  of 
the  mistress  who,  in  a  fit  of  hot  temper,  cruci- 
fied her  slave ;  *  and  the  popular  brutality 
was  gratified  by  the  bloody  spectacles  of  the 
Coliseum.  We  do  not  forget,  in  this  rapid 
survey,  the  temporary  revival  of  the  better 
elements  of  Eoman  faith  and  virtue  in  the  ao^e 
of  the  Antonines — that  Indian  summer  of  the 
Empire's  fading  glory.  But  neither  the  new 
Platonism  of  Alexandria,  nor  the  later  Stoi- 
cism of  the  Roman  metroi^olis,  could  prevent 


Sat. 


THE  NEW  SOCIETY,  215 

the  decline  of  the  world.  ^'  It  was  an  old 
world,"  says  Mommsen,  as  he  closes  his  history, 
"and  even  the  richly  gifted  patriotism  of 
Caesar  could  not  make  it  young  again."  ^  It 
was  the  peculiar  power  of  the  despised  Naza- 
rene  to  call  forth,  by  a  mighty  voice,  a  new 
civilization  from  the  grave  of  the  old.  It  may 
be  said  that  philosophy  rolled  away  the  stone ; 
but  to  restore  life  was  the  miracle  wrought  by 
Christianity. 

This  originality  of  Jesus'  power  was  sig- 
nally exhibited  in  the  rise  and  rapid  growth  of 
the  Church.  He  created  a  new  kind  of  society 
— in  this  world,  as  Jesus  himself  said,  but  not 
of  it.  What  science  of  natural  forces  shall  ex- 
plain the  advent,  in  the  midst  of  its  historical 
environment,  of  this  new  type  of  humanity  ? 
The  Church,  as  a  great  and  surprising  histor- 
ical result,  requires  as  its  cause  a  person  of 
most  original  power.  The  rise  of  Christianity 
presents  a  problem  in  history  which  resem- 
bles the  problem  of  motion  in  astronomy.  If 
the  motion  of  nebulae  and  worlds  be  once 
granted,  then  our  physical  science  may  find 
some  possible  solution  for  the  succeeding  phe- 
nomena of  the  solar  system ;  but  the  difficulty 
is  to  account  for  that  first  impulse  of  the  neb- 
ulous mass,  for  the  oriorinatino^  motion  of  the 


*  Hist.,  iv.  738. 


2l6  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

order  of  the  spheres.  Once  admit  an  original 
divine  impulse,  a  new  formative,  constructive 
power  sent  from  without  into  human  history, 
in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  then  the 
spread  and  growth  of  Christianity  becomes  an 
intelligible  historical  study ;  but  it  is  difficult 
to  find  in  history  a  natural  cause  for  a  su- 
pernatural movement,  a  material  source  for 
a  spiritual  life.  This  original,  new  creative 
power  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  itself  a  miracle 
continued  through  history,  and  at  work  before 
our  eyes  to-day ;  and  though  one  after  another 
of  his  many  mighty  works  be  explained  away, 
this  historical  miracle  still  remains  to  show 
forth  his  glory. 

6.  Another  altogether  unique  characteristic 
of  the  person  of  Jesus  was  his  self -consciousness. 
An  apostle  has  expressed  in  a  single  j^hrase  a 
peculiarity  of  Jesus'  self-consciousness  which 
distinguished  him  from  all  other  men  :  "  In  him 
was  Yea."  (2  Cor.  i.  19.)  The  absence  of  self- 
contradiction  and  questioning,  the  continuity 
and  wholeness  of  Jesus'  own  self-conscious  life, 
are  marvellous  in  our  eyes ;  for  we  are  daily 
contradicting  and  questioning  our  own  hearts  ; 
we  find  different  kinds  of  men  bound  together 
in  us  from  our  birth — spirits  of  light  and  of 
darkness,  of  doubt  and  of  faith,  of  evil  and 
good ;  angels  of  God,  and  demons  of  the  flesh, 
struggling   within   us    through   life   for    the 


THE  SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   JESUS.  21 7 

mastery.  But  Jesus  never  seems  to  have  been 
an  enigma,  a  question,  to  himself,  as  we  are 
often  half -solved  riddles  of  existence  to  our- 
selves. He  knew  whence  he  came.  He  knew 
whither  he  should  go.  This  calm,  assured 
self-knowledge  of  Jesus,  as  it  was  preserved  in 
his  conversations  with  his  friends,  and  through 
all  the  hurrying  scenes  of  his  life,  was  some- 
thing never  witnessed  before  or  since  in  man ; 
something  that  seems  more  like  God  the  more 
we  think  of  it  and  realize  it.  As  he  never 
stood  in  surprise  before  his  own  miracles,  so 
he  does  not  seem  to'have  gazed  in  wonder  into 
his  own  soul.  The  most  wonderful  thing  in 
the  world  to  every  man  is  himself.  All  the 
mysteries  of  the  creation  meet  in  our  own  con- 
sciousness of  self.  But  while  men  marvelled 
at  him,  and  most  strange  things  were  happen- 
ing in  Jerusalem,  this  Man  possessed  himself 
in  perfect  faith,  in  calm,  serene  self-knowl- 
edge ;  even  from  boyhood  living  his  wonder- 
ful life  as  naturally,  as  spontaneously,  as  sim- 
ply, as  a  child  in  his  Father's  house.  This  un- 
broken and  undoubting  "  Yea "  of  Jesus' 
self-consciousness  manifests  itself  throughout 
his  teaching.  His  doctrine  is  never  a  question 
and  a  weary  doubt ;  it  is  an  uninterrupted 
affirmation.  The  manner  or  kind  of  his  posi- 
tiveness  in  teaching  is  peculiar.  It  is  not  the 
assurance  of  education,  or  habit,  or  ignorance  : 
10 


2l8  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

it  is  not  the  dogmatism  of  the  scribe.  His 
authority  puzzled  the  scribes,  for  it  came  not 
from  Moses'  seat,  nor  from  a  prophet's  vision  ; 
but  it  was  the  authority  of  his  own  kingly 
soul.  His  manifestations  of  himself  are  his 
revelations  of  God.  The  singular  positiveness 
of  Jesus  makes  a  powerful  impression  upon  us 
when  we  consider  the  nature  and  the  extent  of 
the  questionings  which  he  answers  with  an  un- 
wavering "  Yea."  In  order  to  appreciate  the 
wonderful  range  of  his  answers,  and  this  dis- 
tinctive positiveness  of  his  teaching,  pass 
quickly  from  one  to  the  other  of  the  verities 
which  he  points  out  to  his  disciples.  Is  there 
another  than  this  earthly  existence  for  us  mor- 
tals ?  Yes :  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life. 
Are  there  other  spheres  of  being  ?  Yes  ;  In 
my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions.  But 
can  man  know  the  Father  ?  Yes :  If  ye  had 
known  me,  ye  should  have  known  my  Father 
also ;  and  from  henceforth  ye  know  him  and 
have  seen  him.  Is  God  thoughtful  of  his 
creatures  ?  Yes :  Youi-  Father  knoweth  what 
things  ye  have  need  of.  Does  the  great  Crea- 
tor care  for  me  ?  Yes  :  The  very  hairs  of  your 
head  are  all  numbered.  Is  prayer  a  power 
with  God?  Yes:  Ask  and  ye  shall  receive. 
Will  justice  ever  be  done — justice  now  mocked, 
and  trodden  under  foot  of  men  %  Yes  :  Many 
that  are  first  shall  be  last,  and  the  last  shall 


THE  SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS   OF   JESUS.  2ig 

be  first.  Is  conscience,  then,  a  true  prophet 
as  it  proclaims  law  and  predicts  future  retri- 
butions ?  Yes  :  He  shall  reward  every  man 
according  to  his  works.  But  can  we  be  for- 
given for  our  sins  ?  Yes  :  Son,  thy  sins  be  for- 
given thee.  But  can  we,  though  forgiven, 
ever  lose  the  memory  of  our  shame,  and  rejoice 
unrebuked  amonsr  the  sinless  ?  Yes  :  I  will 
see  you  again,  and  your  heart  shall  rejoice, 
and  your  joy  no  man  taketh  from  you.  So 
Jesus  dwelt  daily  among  the  great  verities  of 
God's  kingdom,  and  his  teaching  is  throughout 
a  constant  affirmation,  a  most  positive  Gospel 
of  glad  tidings.  It  was  in  Judea,  it  has  been 
for  eighteen  centuries,  it  is  to-day,  the  great 
affirmation  of  the  human  soul,  and  of  all  that 
the  human  heart  can  hold  dear.  Whence  did 
man  born  of  woman  derive  this  wonderful 
consciousness  of  truth  ?  What  science  of 
natural  descent  can  declare  its  generation? 
And,  besides  this,  there  are  expressions  which 
fell  from  the  lips  of  Jesus,  of  a  still  higher 
self-consciousness,  a  certain  divine  sense  and 
knowledge  of  oneness  with  the  Father,  which 
transcend  our  experience  of  ourselves,  and 
leave  us  wondering  what  manner  of  man  he 
was. 

7.  One  more  mark  of  the  divine  originality 
of  Jesus  our  rapid  summary  would  be  singu- 
larly   incomplete    should    we    leave    unmen- 


2  20  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

tioned,  viz.  :  his  position  toward  the  sin  of  the 
world.  Sin  finds  in  him  a  new  and  diviner 
law  of  judgment.  He  stands,  indeed,  on  the 
common  Hebrew  ground  in  his  teaching  with 
regard  to  sin ;  but  he  rises  in  his  doctrine  far 
above  Moses  and  the  prophets ;  and  in  his 
presence  we  feel  that  we  are  in  a  changed 
and  clearer  moral  atmosphere.  He  has  more 
than  a  prophet's  divination  of  the  evil  nature 
of  man.  He  feels  with  a  peculiar  sensitive- 
ness the  presence  of  sin  in  the  thoughts  of 
those  whose  conduct  fulfils  the  law.  His 
superior  knowledge  of  the  evil  hidden  in  the 
heart  of  man,  his  instantaneous  detection  and 
unerring  judgment  of  the  wrong  concealed  be- 
hind the  masks  and  within  the  customs  of 
men,  and  of  the  evil  dispositions  lying  at  the 
root  of  many  questionings  even  of  his  own  dis- 
ciples, are  a  frequent  surprise  to  us,  as  we 
read  the  narratives  of  his  conversation  with 
men.  No  man  ever  saw  or  felt  what  sin  is, 
as  this  man  saw  and  felt  it.  Though  dwell- 
ing among  us,  he  seems  to  have  looked  down 
into  the  depths  of  the  human  heart  as  from 
some  higher  sphere,  and  he  knew  what  was  in 
man.  When  our  eyes  are  near  the  level  of 
the  sea,  we  can  hardly  look  beneath  the  glim- 
mer of  the  surface;  but,  from  some  higher 
point,  we  can  discern  the  sunken  rocks  and 
tangled  sea-weed  amid  the  broken  ledges :  so, 


JESUS'  PERSONAL  RELATION   TO  SIN.  221 

as  from  some  higher  plane,  Jesus  looked  down, 
and  saw,  beneath  the  smooth  surface  of  men's 
lives,  the  hidden  purposes,  the  wild  tangle  of 
desires,  the  hard,  selfish  thoughts  of  human 
hearts. 

But  we  are  lingering  with  the  more  out- 
ward peculiarities  of  Jesus'  relation  to  the  sin 
of  the  world.  The  resemblances  between  him 
and  all  others  diminish,  the  contrast  deepens, 
the  further  we  penetrate  into  the  significance 
of  Jesus'  redemptive  work.  The  altogether 
unique  and  original  personal  position  which 
Jesus  assumes  toward  sin  is  the  distinctive 
doctrine  of  his  Gospel.  It  is  evident  that, 
from  his  baptism  to  his  cross,  Jesus  regards 
himself  as  holding  in  the  Father's  plan  of  the 
world  a  peculiar  place,  and  as  having  a  work 
to  do,  in  regard  to  the  sin  of  the  world,  which 
separates  his  life  from  all  others.  The  Son  of 
man,  he  says,  has  power  on  earth  to  forgive 
sins.  The  mere  fact  that  he  exercised  that 
power,  and  as  by  some  divine  right  inherent 
in  his  own  person,  separates  him,  in  his  own 
self -consciousness,  from  all  the  prophets  and 
priests  who  were  before  him.  Not  merely  to 
teach  that  sin  is  in  its  nature  forgivable,  but 
actually  to  forgive  it  as  by  a  divine  right  of 
forgiveness  dwelling  in  him, — that  was  the 
new,  startling  word  which  aroused  the  syna- 
gogue against   him.     In  the  charge  of  bias- 


22  2  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

phemy,  whicli  was  brought  against  tlie  Son  of 
man  who  forgave  sins,  we  have  a  genuine 
historical  sign  of  the  absolute  originality  in 
Jerusalem  of  the  life  of  Christ.  We  need  not, 
for  our  immediate  purpose,  enter  farther  into 
the  nature  or  meaning  of  Jesus'  personal  rela- 
tion to  man's  sin.  We  may  call  attention, 
however,  to  the  fact  that,  for  our  knowledge  of 
the  peculiar  significance  which  Jesus  attaches 
to  his  life  and  death  for  sinners,  Ave  are  not 
dependent  entirely  upon  his  words,  or  the  re- 
ports of  his  words  in  the  Gospels,  but  upon  a 
great  undisputed  historical  fact,  which  was 
and  is,  itself,  a  new  and  distinctive  Christian 
institution — the  Lord's  Supper.  Looking  at 
the  last  supper  simply  as  an  historical  event, 
regarding  it  merely  in  its  relation  to  preceding 
Jewish  rites,  as  well  as  in  its  place  in  subse- 
quent Christian  history,  we  certainly  are  sur- 
prised by  it,  as  an  occurrence  without  prece- 
dent and  without  parallel.  It  followed  the 
Paschal  supper;  but  can  we  conceive  of  a 
John  the  Baptist,  or  even  of  an  Isaiah,  the 
prophet  of  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  as  having  in- 
stituted it  ?  The  very  idea  of  the  last  Supper 
was  Jesus'  own.  He  only  could  have  super- 
seded the  Passover  by  making  himself  the  sacri- 
fice. We  need  no  evidence  of  the  correctness  of 
the  narration  of  the  evangelists  here.  No  dis- 
ciple could  have  dreamed  of  the  action  which 


ORIGINALITY  OF   THE  LAST  SUPPER.    223 

Jesus  performed  wheii  he  took  the  cup,  and 
blessed  it,  as  the  new  testament  in  his  blood. 
The  account  of  the  Lord's  Supper  could  only 
have  orio:inated  from  the  actual  occurrence  of 
it.  But  whence  came  Jesus'  own  idea  of  it? 
What 'science  that  does  not  admit  the  inspi- 
ration of  the  Spirit  shall  account  for  its  sug- 
gestion? Consider  the  amazing  significance 
of  this  unheard-of  action  —  that  a  human 
being,  like  ourselves,  calmly,  quietly,  with 
prayer  to  God,  while  pronouncing  a  farewell 
blessing  upon  his  friends,  in  the  very  presence 
of  death,  where  usually  the  masks  which  may 
have  been  worn  for  a  lifetime  are  suffered  to 
fall  off,  and  all  deception  ceases,  should,  never- 
theless, have  made  himself  the  passover  of  his 
people,  both  the  mediator  and  the  mediation 
of  the  sin  of  the  world  !  Surely  this  action 
of  Jesus  is  contrary  to  human  experience — a 
miracle  not  to  be  believed,  according  to  Hume's 
famous  argument — yet  Jesus  did  it ;  and  we 
know  that  he  did  it,  for  we  have  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  Lord's  death  observed  by  the 
Church  in  memory  of  him  unto  this  day.  The 
Church  and  its  sacrament  are  the  faithful  wit- 
nesses, through  all  the  intervening  centuries, 
of  the  divine  originality  of  Jesus  Christ. 

We  have  given  above  a  rapid  survey  of 
those  characteristics  of  the  Christ  of  the 
evangelists  which  distinguish    him   from   all 


2  24  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

others,  and  leave  us  wondering  and  worship- 
ping before  a  being  altogether  unique,  original, 
and  superhuman.  These  supernatural  ele- 
ments in  the  life  of  Jesus  are  so  inwoven  with 
the  commonest  incidents  as  well  as  the  greater 
events  of  the  Gospel ;  they  appear  and  reap 
pear  in  so  many  scenes  of  the  sacred  story  . 
they  are  elements  so  constant  and  so  natura) 
in  the  narratives  of  the  evangelists,  as  to  pre 
elude  the  idea  of  any  intentional  invention  or 
artificial  production  of  them.  The  impression 
made  by  Jesus  upon  his  age — the  impressioi|L 
of  a,  divinely  original  being  which  we  receiv^ 
from  merely  reading  the  Gospels — is  not 
broken,  and  cannot  be  done  away  with,  by 
any  questions  or  doubts  raised  by  the  critical 
school  concerning  the  time  when  our  present 
Gospels  were  wi'itten.  Whenever  and  wher- 
ever our  Gospels  received  their  present,  final 
form,  the  real  historical  fact  to  be  accounted 
for  is  the  great  original  of  their  wonderful 
portraiture.  Human  imagination  never  liter- 
ally creates — its  pictures  are  new  combina- 
tions of  existing  objects ;  but  here  we  have  a 
portraiture  of  a  character  and  a  life  which,  if 
we  look  at  it  simply  as  an  ideal  picture,  we 
are  at  a  loss  to  explain  as  a  happy  combina- 
tion, a  marvellous  union  by  genius,  of  any 
known  features,  or  virtues,  ever  seen  before  on 
earth.     The  portraiture  of  the  Christ  of  the 


THE  HISTORICAL   CHRIST.  22 S 

(Gospels  is  a  work  beyond  the  power  of  the 
Iphilosophers,  certainly  then  beyond  the  imagi- 
tiation  of  fishermen  of  Galilee.  We  know  that 
Ihey  could  not  have  originated  it,  as  we 
fenow  that  Peter  could  not  have  chiselled  out 
S)f 'the  marble  the  beauty  of  the  Apollo  Belvi- 
Oere,  or  Paul  have  painted  that  wonder  of  art, 
^he  Sistine  Madonna.  We  know  it,  that  is, 
iiot  merely  by  reason  of  critical  inquiries  into 
rtistorical  records,  but  by  the  simple  applica- 
h  on  to  the  Gospels  of  the  common  laws  of  the 
oiuman  imagination.  The  original  of  the 
sijangelists'  portraiture  of  Jesus  would  remain 
oie  great  wonder  of  humanity,  even  though 
ch could  be  proved,  as  it  never  has  been  proved, 
itfat  our  Gospels  are  copies  of  copies.  Our 
a  delusion  depends  upon  the  historical  neces- 
o:^y  of  believing  in  the  Person  whose  appear- 
ance was  the  creative  cause  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment literature,  and  the  Christian  tradition, 
and  the  rise  of  the  Church  ;  it  does  not  depend 
upon  any  question  as  to  the  authenticity  or  in- 
spiration of  some  particular  Christian  writing. 
We  have  reason,  indeed,  to  thank  the  rational- 
istic critics  that,  as  one  result  of  their  micro- 
scopical study  of  the  beginnings  of  Christi- 
anity, it  is  becoming  more  difficult  for  us  to 
conceive  of  the  spontaneous  generation  of  the 
Church  from  the  historical  conditions  of  the 
first  century ;  and  we  are  gaining,  on  the 
10* 


2  26  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

other  hand,  a  clearer  apprehension  of  the? 
divine  and  ineffable  impression  produced  by, 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  upon  those  who  beheld  his- 
glory.  The  miraculous  conception  of  tha 
image  of  his  character  in  the  mind  of  somtf' 
unlearned  Galilean  of  the  first  century,  or  some' 
unknown  writer  of  the  second  century,  would- 
be  a  greater  tax  upon  our  credulity  than  any^ 
of  the  mighty  works  recorded  in  John's  Gos 
pel.  The  image  of  God  which  the  Church  or 
the  second  century  possessed  in  the  Christ  on 
its  worship,  would  be  itself  the  greatest  on 
wonders,  if  the  first  century  had  not  witnesse  e 
the  miracle  of  his  very  person.  EationalisPt 
must  excuse  faith  from  rushing  into  belief  :>y 
psychological  miracles,  wrought  in  the  highet^l 
realms  of  the  spirit,  and  supported  by  no  hnt 
torical  evidence,  in  order  to  avoid  belief  T- 
miracles,  wrought  in  the  lower  realms  of 
nature,  which  are  confirmed  by  much  histori- 
cal evidence.  Christianity,  in  short,  in  all 
that  is  wonderful,  unique,  powerful,  and  crea- 
tive in  it,  leads  directly  back  to  the  historical 
Christ.  And  the  character  of  Jesus  Christ 
rises  before  us  from  the  midst  of  history  in 
solitary  and  unapproachable  grandeur. 

In  the  northern  part  of  Maine  there  is  a 
mountain  which  springs  from  the  midst  of  the 
forest,  unapproached  by  lesser  heights,  lifting 
its  solitary  peak    into    the    clouds.     Floating 


THE  HISTORICAL    CHRIST.  22y 

down  the  stream  whicli  flows  by  it,  between 
tlie  overhanging  banks,  suddenly,  at  some 
turn  of  the  river's  course,  I  have  seen  Mount 
Katahdin,  standing  out  from  the  interminable 
forests,  its  grand  lines  sharply  defined,  its 
single,  sublime  peak  rising  alone  into  the  sky. 
Often  that  mountain  vision  seems  repeated, 
as  I  am  brought  before  the  character  of  Christ. 
Above  the  interminable  levels  of  common  hu- 
man nature,  across  the  intervening  distances  of 
history,  an  image  of  solitary  majesty  stands 
out  before  the  mind ;  and  the  view  of  that 
sublime  character,  rising  from  the  midst  of 
our  low,  monotonous  human  attainments, 
clearly  outlined  against  the  soul's  horizon,  in 
its  wonderful  elevation,  is  an  inspiration  and 
a  joy,  awakening  the  whole  moral  enthusiasm 
of  our  being ! 

But  no  sooner  have  we  reached  this  conclu- 
sion, which  has  been  fairly  gained  upon  its 
own  evidence,  that  Jesus  was  a  person  of  di- 
vine originality,  than  we  find  ourselves  vio- 
lently thrown  back  upon  our  reasonings  by 
the  force  of  another  conviction  equally  posi- 
tive and  powerful.  Science  can  admit  the  ap- 
pearance of  nothing  original  in  the  world.  If, 
putting  entirely  out  of  mind  for  the  moment 
our  preceding  reasonings,  we  start  again  from 
our  observation  of  the  course  of  nature,  we 
shall  find  no  exceptions  to  the  uniformity  of 


2  28  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

nature.  We  see  nothing  rise  above  the  hori- 
zon of  our  own  experience,  which  has  not  had 
elsewhere  its  setting.  We  know  that  there  is 
nothing  new  under  the  sun.  All  things  that 
appear  to  us,  seem  to  come  to  pass  in  the  regu- 
lar operation  of  natural  laws.  We  know  of 
nothing  which  is  separate  from  all  other  things, 
nothing  absolutely  unique  in  the  world.  The 
solitary  peak  has  its  foundations  deep  in  the 
common  earth.  Genius  rises  from  the  people. 
There  is  nothing  so  singular,  so  exalted,  or  so 
separate,  that  we  are  not  to  seek  for  its  origin 
and  its  cause  in  the  general  system  of  nature. 
Every  thread  of  life  is  inextricably  looped  with 
a  thousand  other  threads ;  nature  never  breaks 
her  web,  and  no  science  can  find  the  beginning 
nor  the  ending  of  so  much  as  a  single  thread 
of  her  ceaseless  spinning.  The  force  of  this 
scientific  conviction  we  would  neither  avoid 
nor  abate.  We  accept  the  law  of  continuity 
as  a  law  of  things  which  it  is  infidelity  to  truth 
to  deny.  We  believe  in  the  uniformity  of  na- 
ture as  we  would  in  a  word  of  God.  What, 
then,  are  we  to  do  ?  Here  are  two  conclusions, 
each  fairly  reached,  each  standing  impreg- 
nable upon  its  own  ground ;  yet  the}"  stand 
facing  each  other;  we  cannot  pass  from  the 
one  to  the  other ;  they  rise,  separate  and  op- 
posite, and  equally  commanding.  What  are 
we   to   do?     Possibly  there   may   be   deeper 


CHRIST  AND  THE  LAW  OF  CONTINUITY.  229 

ground  where  we  may  find,  at  tlie  bottom  of 
things,  a  way  from  the  one  to  the  other  of 
these  confronting  truths.  But  we  are  not  to 
seek  for  the  harmony  of  science  and  religion 
by  levelling  either  to  the  plane  of  the  other. 
Two  conclusions,  both  positive  and  substan- 
tial, are  brought  over  against  each  other.  On 
the  one  hand  is  the  person  of  Christ — the  ulti- 
mate moral  fact  of  history — whose  origin  can- 
not be  derived  from  the  past  by  any  of  the 
known  laws  of  heredity — a  sublime  historical 
phenomenon,  unexampled  and  unexplained — a 
mystery  of  being  and  of  influence,  whose  spell 
has  been  upon  all  the  passing  generations — a 
name,  above  all  others,  which  grows  not  less, 
but  more  adorable,  as  the  ages  come  and  go. 
On  the  other  hand  is  the  unbroken  order  of 
the  creation,  and  the  law,  older  than  history 
and  more  ancient  than  the  stars,  which  binds 
all  things  that  come  and  go  into  one  continu- 
ous whole.  What  then  ?  Give  up  either  con- 
clusion on  its  own  ground,  we  cannot.  To  sac- 
rifice one  truth  to  another  truth  is  never  rea- 
sonable. Scepticism  may  look  about  and  see 
oppositions,  and  raise  questions,  and  create 
doubts ;  but  it  is  the  very  essence  of  infidelity 
to  give  up  truth ;  and,  whether  the  truth  sacri- 
ficed be  a  truth  of  nature  or  of  the  spirit,  of 
science  or  of  religion,  it  is  always  infidelity  to 
give  up  any  truth  to  any  other  truth.     There 


230  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

may  be  believing  as  well  as  atheistic  infidels, 
if  the  essence  of  infidelity  be  the  giving  up  of 
truth,  even  though  as  an  offering  to  some 
other  truth.  Faith  is  often  refusal  to  surren- 
der truth  to  truths — the  holding  fast  all  feel- 
ings, or  perceptions,  of  truth — and  waiting. 
When,  therefore,  a  moral  phenomenon  and  a 
physical  law  are  made  to  confront  one  another 
— as  the  divine  originality  of  Jesus  stands 
over  against  the  uniformity  of  nature — is  not 
he  who  should  bid  us  deny  either  for  the  sake 
of  the  other  the  real  unbeliever  ?  We  refuse 
to  abandon  the  scientific  principle  of  con- 
tinuity in  reading  the  life  of  Christ ;  we  also 
decline  to  give  up  the  witness  of  history  and 
the  testimony  of  the  human  soul  to  the  super- 
natural person  of  Christ  at  the  command  of 
the  principle  of  continuity.  We  know  that 
contradictories  cannot  be  true.  It  would  be 
infidelity,  again,  to  truth  to  hold  that  the  same 
thing  can  be  true  in  religion  and  false  in  phi- 
losophy. But  Ave  know  that  we  do  not  al- 
ways know  what  are  opposites  in  the  nature  of 
things.  And  we  would  wait  until  eternity, 
believing  in  apparent  opposites,  rather  than 
deny,  for  the  sake  of  mental  peace,  one  appar- 
ent truth.  But  need  we  do  either?  May 
we  not  in  this  instance  find  truth  enough  al- 
ready known,  to  indicate  that  there  is  no  real 
contradiction  between  nature  and  Jesus  Christ  ? 


THE  LARGER   QUESTION.  23  I 

May  not  the  opposition  of  convictions  in  our 
minds  result  simply  from  the  narrowness  of  our 
view  of  both  truths  ?  Is  there  any  larger 
view  in  which  these  two  great  conclusions — 
the  oneness  of  nature,  and  the  divine  original- 
ity of  Jesus  Christ — shall  both  appear  to  be 
parts  and  results  of  one  and  the  same  compre- 
hensiv^e  and  far-reaching  design?  May  we 
not  have  in  the  person  and  life  of  Christ  the 
very  culmination,  the  highest  union,  of  two 
great  processes  of  God's  activity,  of  two  evo- 
lutions, which  have  been  Avorking  from  the 
beginning  towards  one  far-off  and  glorious 
consummation?  I  believe  that  there  are  di- 
vine processes,  great  supernatural  laws  and 
forces  of  the  natural  '  economy  of  things — 
traces  and  results  of  which  are  to  be  found  in 
the  visible  worlds  and  in  human  history — 
which  culminate  and  are  manifestly  fulfilled 
in  the  person  and  work  of  the  Christ ;  and  in 
relation  to  which  his  supernatural  being  may 
be  seen  to  be  most  truly  and  profoundly  natu- 
ral— the  end  of  the  creation,  and  the  consum- 
mation of  history,  prepared  from  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  YI. 

THE    CULMINATION    IN    THE    CHRIST. II.    THE 

NATURALNESS    OP    CHRIST. 

One  evidence  of  this  deeper  naturalness  of 
the  incarnation,  of  this  higher  harmony  of  the 
life  of  the  Christ  with  the  whole  system  of 
things,  comes  to  us  directly  from  our  consider- 
ation of  those  characteristics  of  Jesus  by 
which  his  uniqueness  is  made  obvious. 
Though  without  parallel,  his  life  is  in  perfect 
accordance  throughout  with  itself.  All  its 
characteristics  seem  natural  when  grouped 
together,  and  looked  at,  each  in  its  relations 
to  the  others.  Though  we  have  never  seen 
one  like  Jesus,  yet  Jesus  always  seems  like 
himself.  Any  one  marvellous  word  or  deed, 
related  by  the  evangelists  of  the  Son  of  man, 
does  not  appear  strange  if  we  read  of  it  in  con- 
nection with  all  the  other  alleged  facts  of  his 
life.  Or,  in  other  words,  if  all  the  circum- 
stances related  of  Jesus  be  admitted,  they 
form  together  an  orderly  and  consistent 
whole.  Though  Jesus  is  the  great  miracle  of 
history,  he  is  a  self  consistent  miracle. 


THE  HARMONY  OF   JESUS'   LIFE.        233 

The  importance  of  this  consideration  can 
hardly  be  overstated.  It  has  great  evidential 
force,  and  is  significant  both  of  the  genuineness 
of  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  also  of  his  place  in 
the  larger  nature  of  things.  It  shows  his  life 
to  be  a  true  life,  and  a  life,  however  wonder- 
ful, not  out  of  the  divine  order.  We  need, 
therefore,  to  look  closely  at  this  unity  of 
Jesus'  life  and  its  significance. 

The  fact  that  the  particulars  of  any  narra- 
tive, although  N^vj  strange  in  themselves, 
form  together  a  perfectly  consistent  and 
straightforward  story,  gives  credibility  to  the 
whole  account,  and  reflects  back  the  probabil- 
ity of  the  whole  upon  each  incident  of  the 
story.  This  is  a  strictly  legal  principle  of 
evidence.  A  witness,  we  will  suppose,  begins 
with  an  improbable  statement.  He  adds  an- 
other and  another  singular  incident.  We 
shake  our  heads  in  incredulity,  but  we  begin 
to  notice  a  method  in  his  madness.  His  very 
improbabilities  begin  to  combine  themselves 
into  one  growing  probability  of  truth.  If  any 
one  incident  happened  as  he  narrates,  it  is 
possible  that  the  whole  event,  or  series  of 
events,  occurred.  The  unity  of  all,  and  the 
consistency  of  the  whole  story,  furnish  strong 
presumptive  evidence,  at  least,  of  its  truth, 
which  can  be  set  aside  only  by  positive  evi- 
dence, or  stronger  probabilities,  to    the  con- 


2  34  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

trary.  The  fact,  therefore,  that  the  several 
scenes  in  the  life  of  Jesus  fall  into  order  and 
make  one  continuous,  beautiful  whole,  if  all 
the  reports  of  the  evangelists  be  substantially 
true,  is  certainly  a  striking  evidence  of  the 
truthfulness  of  the  evangelists'  strange  story. 
Taken  as  a  whole,  it  looks  natural. 

It  is  a  strictly  scientific  principle  of  judg- 
ment which  we  are  using.  If,  for  instance,  we 
should  discover  a  single  fossil  bone  which  looks 
as  though  it  might  belong  to  the  anatomy  of 
some  bird,  yet  is  so  large,  or  curiously  shaped, 
as  to  make  it  impossible  for  us  to  refer  it  to 
any  bird  we  have  ever  seen  or  heard  of,  we 
might  say  :  "  This  could  not  have  been  what 
we  supposed  at  first ;  it  must  be  something 
else."  But  if,  one  after  another,  several 
strangely  formed  bones  should  be  found,  and 
if,  when  put  together,  it  were  discovered  that 
their  very  peculiarities  match,  and  that  they 
form  the  skeleton  of  a  bird,  complete  in  it- 
self, though  unlike  that  of  any  bird  known  to 
us ;  then  we  should  be  obliged  to  admit  that 
the  fossil  remains,  taken  as  a  whole,  prove 
that  the  strange  bird  once  really  existed  ;  and 
if  we  had  no  place  for  it  in  our  science  of  or- 
ganic forms,  we  should  simply  have  to  revise 
our  science  and  make  room  for  it.  The  com- 
pleteness of  the  whole,  that  is  to  say,  enables 
us  rightly  to  interpret  the  parts,  and  to  view 


THE  HARMONY  OF   JESUS'   LIFE.        235 

as  a  natural  series,  or  connected  system, 
peculiarities  which  might  otherwise  seem  con- 
trary to  experience  and  unaccountable. 

Similarly  the  confirmation  of  the  parts, 
given  by  the  whole  of  the  Gospel,  ought  to 
have  recognized  scientific  value.  What  looks 
unnatural  by  itself,  becomes  a  natural  part  of 
the  entire  order  of  events  or  system  of  truths. 
The  several  supernatural  occurrences,  related 
in  the  Gospels,  form  one  natural  order,  if  re- 
garded as  successive  manifestations  of  one 
divine  process  of  revelation.  Thus  we  begin 
with  a  strange  story  of  the  nativity.  It  would 
be  incredible  if  it  were  followed  by  an  ordi- 
nary life.  We  could  not  believe  it  if  the 
sonof  of  the  ano^els  had  announced  the  birth 
of  a  man  who  should  prove  to  be  only  like 
one  of  us.  But  we  read  on,  and  find  that  the 
life,  scene  after  scene,  year  after  year,  corre- 
sponds to  the  strange  story  of  the  birth,  and 
the  end  confirms  the  beglnniDg  of  the  Gospel 
of  the  Son  of  God.  A  marvellous  effect  equals 
a  marvellous  cause.  As  we  pursue  the  narra- 
tive, we  find  upon  almost  every  page  the  report 
of  some  wonderful  work.  We  might  be 
utterly  incredulous,  did  we  not  notice,  as  we 
proceed,  that  they  all  seem  to  be  manifesta- 
tions of  one  and  the  same  power,  and  the 
agreement  and  correspondences  of  the  wdrks 
would  indicate   some   one   efficient   principle 


■0 


6  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 


common  to  tliem  all.  We  read  on,  and  are 
amazed  by  the  words  to  the  women,  "  He  is 
risen."  But  in  our  surprise,  while  the  testi- 
mony of  different  witnesses  is  brought  to  us 
confirming:  the  marvellous  fact  of  the  resur- 
rection,  Ave  remember  that  his  very  birth  was 
miraculous,  and  his  daily  life  a  growing  won- 
der. And,  again,  miracle  answers  miracle,  and 
all  seems  to  be  the  continuous  manifestation 
of  a  more  than  human  presence.  These  many 
testimonies  to  his  resurrection  would  be  con- 
trary to  experience,  and  seem  incredible,  if 
related  of  one  of  our  friends  whom  we  had 
just  buried ;  but  are  they  contrary  to  the  ex- 
perience the  world  had  already  had  of  Jesus  ? 
Are  they  contrary  to  human  experience  of  the 
Christ?  He  who  appeared  to  the  disciples, 
risen  from  the  dead,  is  One  whom  they  had 
already  followed,  wondering,  in  the  way  ;  One 
whose  life  with  them  in  Judea  and  Galilee 
had  been  full  of  surprises ;  whom  they  had 
already  found  to  be  not  as  other  men  are. 
The  resurrection  was  not  contrary  to  their 
experience  of  Jesus.  We  read  on  to  the  end, 
and  the  Gospel  concludes  with  the  strange 
story  of  the  ascension  from  Mt.  Olivet.  Of 
any  other  a  close  of  life  like  that  might  seem 
incredible.  But  the  wdiole  preceding  narra- 
tive-makes it  a  natural  scene  at  the  close  of 
Jesus'  life.     We  expect  a  wondei-ful  sunset  at 


THE  HARMONY   OF    JESUS'   LIFE.        237 

the  end  of  a  rare  day  in  June.  Read  tlie  de- 
scription of  the  ascension,  after  reading  the 
whole  Gospel  before  it,  and  it  ceases  to  seem 
surprising  that  Jesus  should  have  vanished  in 
a  cloud  of  glory  from  the  eyes  of  his  disciples. 
His  miraculous  conception,  and  his  ascension 
into  heaven,  seem  the  fitting  and  natural  be- 
ginning and  ending  of  the  unearthly  life  that 
lay  between.  The  deep,  wonderful  harmony 
between  Jesus'  person  and  his  life,  between 
his  character  and  his  works,  is  to  us  the  al- 
most irresistible  proof  of  the  genuineness  of 
both.  We  are  asked  to  believe  in  no  discon- 
nected miracles ;  we  may  trace  the  unbroken 
continuity  of  a  divine  life  with  man.  We 
are  bidden  to  put  our  faith  in  no  momentary 
and  evanescent  gleams  of  something  mysteri- 
ous and  unearthly  ;  we  are  called  upon  to  fol- 
low humbly  and  reverently  One  who  from  the 
first  scenes  of  his  boyhood  moved  upon  a  plane 
above  us  all — a  daily  wonder  to  his  friends — 
in  thought  and  life,  as  well  as  word  and  deed, 
the  continuous  miracle  of  his  age  ;  and  all  the 
events  in  his  exalted  life  require  each  the 
others  ;  and  though,  when  taken  singly,  they 
are  seemingly  incredible,  together  they  form 
one  consistent  whole,  itself  not  inconceivable 
as  one  divine  process  of  self-revelation. 

Besides  this  naturalness  of  Jesus'  life  as  a 
whole,  and   the  agreement  of  its  parts  among 


238  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

themselves,  there  is  perfect  correspondence 
between  being  and  influence  in  the  life  which 
the  evangelists  portray,  and  in  the  continu- 
ation of  its  power  in  Christianity.  The  in- 
fluence of  Jesus  is  most  natural,  if  his  person 
is  what  it  was  represented  to  have  been  ;  and 
his  person  is  natural  when  viewed  as  the 
cause  of  the  effect  which,  it  is  alleged,  was 
produced  by  his  dwelling  among  men.  The 
law  of  cause  and  effect  is  not  broken,  the  har- 
mony of  being  and  influence  is  not  inter- 
rupted, if  all  the  alleged  facts  be  granted. 
This,  also,  is  a  significant  appearance  of  the 
Christ  of  the  Gospels  ;  for  the  law,  which  is 
fulfilled  in  his  life,  of  the  direct  relation  or 
correspondence  between  being  and  influence, 
is  one  of  the  universal  laws.  It  would  be 
hard  to  conceive  of  a  miraculous  violation  of 
it,  for  it  is  a  law  of  nature  which  contains  in 
itself,  also,  a  moral  truth.  What  anything 
does  is  determined,  and  ought  to  be  deter- 
mined, by  what  it  is.  ''  Of  such  as  they 
have  "  all  things  give  unto  us ;  the  solid  earth 
of  its  gravity  ;  the  air  of  its  breath  of  life ; 
flowers  of  their  fragrance  :  birds  of  their  song- 
fulness  ;  the  moon  of  her  silvery  light ;  the 
sun  of  the  gladsome  day.  The  whole  science 
of  physics  and  of  chemical  equivalents  rests 
upon  the  primal  law,  that  what  any  molecule 
of  matter  does  is  in  direct  ratio   to  what  it  is. 


BEING  AND  INFLUENCE.  239 

The  work  done  never  exceeds  the  measure  of 
force  represented  by  the  quantities  of  nature's 
constant  equation.  Nothing  gives  what  it  has 
not  first  received.  There  is  always  absolute 
truthfulness  in  the  charity  of  nature.  So, 
also,  in  human  society,  men  give  of  what  they 
have  in  themselves ;  their  influence  is  the  ex- 
ponent of  what  they  are.  What  goes  forth 
from  them  of  good  or  evil,  of  hurtful  in- 
fluence or  of  healing  virtue,  is  the  expression, 
the  moral  equivalent,  of  what  they  are  and 
have  in  themselves ;  of  the  goodness,  or  the 
sin,  which  is  formed  in  their  own  hearts. 

In  the  long  run  this  law  of  personal  influ- 
ence proves  itself  to  be  true.  Our  doing  is 
measured  by  our  being.  This,  also,  is  one  of 
the  fundamental  principles  of  the  philosophy 
of  history,  that  being  and  giving,  what  men 
and  states  and  civilizations  are,  and  what  they 
do,  form  a  direct  historical  ratio,  and  each  is 
the  explanation  of  the  other.  We  simply 
apply  this  universal  law  of  influence  to  the 
life  of  Christ,  when  we  seek  for  the  adequate 
explanation  of  what  he  has  done,  and  is  doing, 
in  the  world,  in  the  mystery  of  his  own  per- 
son ;  and,  conversely,  in  the  ineffable  glory  of 
his  person,  see  the  wonder  of  his  influence  in 
human  history  made  plain.  Each  is  the  nat- 
ural correlate  of  the  other.  We  apply  this 
principle    to    his    miracles.      Was    he    who 


240  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

wrouglit  tliese  miracles  himself  such  a  person 
that  they  seem  natural  works  for  him  to  do  ? 
The  surprise,  then,  of  his  works  disappears  be- 
fore the  greater  surprise  of  his  person.  If 
he,  himself,  has  a  supernatural  consciousness, 
then,  by  the  established  and  universal  law  of 
influence,  his  miracles  follow  as  a  matter  of 
course.  The  ultimate  reason,  to  thoughtful 
minds,  for  belief  in  the  miracles  of  Christ, 
must  be  faith  in  the  higher  nature  of  Christ's 
person.  Given  either  as  historically  prob- 
able, and  the  other  is  conceivable.  Either 
makes  the  other  natural.  The  miracles,  as  re- 
lated in  the  Gospels,  are  simply  a  part  of 
Christ's  self -revelation,  in  consistency  with 
the  whole,  and  with  each  other,  showing 
throughout  the  same  power  and  moral  quality, 
and  in  perfect  keeping  with  all  other  parts 
of  his  self-revelation,  manifesting  his  glory. 
If  the  life  of  Jesus  was  the  evolution  in 
nature,  in  human  nature,  of  a  higher  power, 
the  development  of  an  incarnate  divine  life, 
it  is,  from  beginning  to  end,  in  entire  harmony 
with  itself — one  continuous  and  orderly  reve- 
lation. 

We  may  apply  the  same  general  law  of  in- 
fluence to  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  He  spake  as 
never  man  spake,  because  he  was  as  never  man 
was.  The  originality  of  Christ's  doctrine  has 
its  counterpart  in  the  uniqueness  of  his  self- 


BEING  AND   INFLUENCE.  24I 

consciousness.  One  peculiarity  of  Jesus'  au- 
thority, to  which  we  have  already  alluded, 
finds  in  this  manner  its  only  explanation. 
There  seems  to  be  a  difEerence  in  kind  between 
the  inspiration  of  Jesus  and  the  inspiration  of 
the  prophets.  Jesus  was  inspired  from  within 
— not  from  a  God  without  himself.  The  Del- 
phic priest  must  go  and  consult  the  oracle  for 
the  response;  the  Hebrew  seer  must  bind 
around  him  the  Urim  and  the  Thummim ; 
the  later  prophets  declare  the  words  of  the 
Lord  which  came  to  them :  a  voice  calls 
them ;  a  sign  is  shown  them ;  a  scene  of 
strange  import  appears  as  a  vision  of  the 
spirit;  they  wait,  and  look,  and  listen,  and 
then  go  forth  to  the  people,  or  enter  the  king's 
palace,  vnth  some  message  with  which  they  are 
sent  from  the  Eternal ; — but  Christ  does  not 
seem  to  go  without  himself,  beyond  his  own 
self -consciousness,  for  his  rev^elations.  He 
knows  the  Father.  He  declares  what  the 
Father  makes  known  to  the  Son.  As  he 
comes  to  the  knowledge  of  himself,  he  comes 
to  his  knowledge  of  the  Father.  His  own 
thoughts  are  God's  thoughts.  His  revelation 
of  God  is  the  manifestation  of  his  own  glory. 
His  word  from  the  Lord  is  given  to  him 
through  his  o^vn  life,  and  in  showing  himself 
he  declares  unto  his  disciples  the  Father. 
This  is  altogether  exceptional  and  marvellous  : 
11 


242  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

both  the  inspiration  and  the  truth  of  Jesus  are 
unlike  anything  ever  witnessed  before  in 
Judea,  and  contrary  to  human  experience ; 
but  they  correspond.  The  teaching  and  the 
person  of  Jesus,  as  the  evangelists  represent 
each,  are  at  one,  and  each  is  the  w^itness  of  the 
genuineness  of  the  other.  So  all  the  other 
peculiarities  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  at  which 
we  have  glanced,  are  in  accordance  with  the 
image  of  the  divine  human  person,  of  which 
the  disciples  were  the  witnesses."^ 

The  same  correspondence  between  being  and 
influence  in  Christ,  it  should  be  noticed,  is 
illustrated  and  confirmed  by  the  historical 
Avork  of  Jesus,  or,  what  we  may  justly  call,  the 
continuation  of  the  life  of  Christ  in  Christi- 
anity. "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world,"  was  his  w^ord  to  his  dis- 
ciples as  he  vanished  from  them;  and  what 
the  evangelists  say  that  he  is,  and  what  he 
has  been  doing  through  Christian  history,  cor- 
respond. But  we  shall  recur  to  this  corre- 
spondence between  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels  as 
a  cause,  and  Christianity  as  an  effect,  in  an- 
other connection.     At  this  point  we  desire  to 


*  The  same  law  of  the  direct  ratio  between  being  and  influ- 
ence should  be  applied  to  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  atonement ; 
what  Christ  did  for  us  upon  the  cross  is  determined  by  what  he 
was  when  dying  upon  the  cross  :  but  to  enter  upon  this  sugges- 
tive subject  would  carry  us  too  far  from  our  immediate  purpose. 


THE  HIGHER  LAW  OF  JESUS'  LIFE.     243 

dwell  upon  the  special  significance  of  this 
agreement  among  themselves  of  the  several 
parts  and  successive  events  of  Christ's  life  ; 
of  this  thorough  harmony  between  the  work 
and  the  being  of  Jesus ;  of  the  naturalness  of 
his  supernatural  life  when  viewed  as  one 
whole,  complete  in  itself.  Such  appearances 
indicate  that  this  strange  life  was  not  out  of 
order,  or  without  law — an  anomaly  of  nature — 
a  causeless  and  incredible  miracle  in  the  regu- 
lar course  of  human  experience.  The  very 
orderliness,  symmetry,  and  perfectness  of  this 
life  might  lead  us  to  suspect  that  it  may  have 
been  lived  in  fulfilment  of  diviner  things  in 
nature  than  we  have  dreamed  of  in  our  phi- 
losophy. There  is  a  method  in  the  miracle. 
There  is  a  spiritual  design  worked  out  in  the 
course  of  this  divinely  human  life.  It  is  a  life 
that  manifestly  follows  its  own  higher  law  of 
development.  It  is  throughout  the  orderly 
unfolding,  the  natural  growth,  of  a  supernat- 
ural principle  and  a  superhuman  soul.  Its 
several  moments,  epochs,  and  manifestations, 
inexplicable  by  our  self-knowledge,  and  con- 
trary to  our  experience  of  ourselves,  seem  to 
be  the  successive  stages  of  some  diviner  un- 
folding than  we  know,  and  the  whole  develop- 
ment follows  its  own  hidden  and  spiritual  law. 
The  life  of  Jesus,  in  a  word,  unnatural  and  in- 
conceivable on  any  other  hypothesis,  becomes 


244  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

natural  and  conceivable  tlie  moment  we  regard 
it  as  the  development  of  an  incarnation. 

The  question,  then,  at  once  springs  up :  Are 
there  any  signs  elsewhere  in  the  world  of  a 
great  supernatural  movement,  a  higher  evolu- 
tion, whose  natural  culmination  may  be  the 
divine  human  life  of  the  Christ?  Original 
and  unaccountable  as  were  his  coming  and  his 
appearance,  in  the  order  of  nature, — is  there  a 
larger,  deeper,  higher,  diviner  order  of  nature 
and  history  in  the  midst  of  which  Jesus  has 
his  own  proper  place  and  dominion  ?  From 
the  consideration  of  the  naturalness  of  the  life 
of  Christ,  when  viewed  as  one  continuous  pro- 
cess of  divine  revelation,  we  are  led  further 
to  ask  how  that  unique  person  stands  in  rela- 
tion to  the  divine  processes  in  history  which 
had  already,  before  his  coming,  been  working 
out  providential  designs  ?  As  the  fulfilment 
of  a  divine  life  in  the  world,  as  the  culmina- 
tion of  a  divine  energy  in  human  history,  may 
not  this  wonder  of  the  ages,  this  miracle  of  hu- 
manity, become  again  to  us  a  most  profoundly 
natural  phenomenon — a  manifestation  of  God 
in  harmony  with  the  deepest  truth,  and  high- 
est law,  and  largest  design  of  the  creation — 
veiily  foreordained,  as  the  Scriptures  say,  be- 
fore the  'foundation  of  the  world  ?  We  be- 
lieve the  uniqueness  of  the  Christ  to  be  but 
the  half  truth  of  history;  the  naturalness  of 


THE  FULFILMENT  OF  HISTORY.         245 

the  incarnation  is  tlie  whole  truth  of  the  crea- 
tion. 

In  attempting  to  enlarge  our  horizon,  and 
to  rise  to  this  broader  philosophy  of  history, 
we  have  then,  first,  to  regard  Jesus  Christ  as 
the  end  of  a  special  historical  development, 
the  power  and  law  of  which  were  from  above. 
As  such,  Christ  is  the  natural  conclusion  of  a 
supernatural  process,  the  signs  and  evidences 
of  which  we  have  traced,  in  preceding  chap- 
ters, in  the  history  of  Israel — in  the  historical 
growth  of  the  Bible  and  the  religion  of  the 
Bible.  Judaism  of  itself  did  not  produce,  as 
its  natural  flower,  the  beauty  of  the  Gospel; 
Judaism  by  its  own  forces  could  not  develop 
into  Christianity,  or  account  for  the  Christ 
standing  among  men.  He  is  unique.  But 
he  appeared  as  the  end  of  a  supernatural  evo- 
lution, which  we  can  follow  as  a  great,  special 
providential  preparation  through  the  history 
of  Israel.  Jesus  is  the  realized  Christ  of  the 
Old  Dispensation.  Without  the  coming  of 
the  Messiah,  the  divine  light,  glimmering  and 
growing  through  the  Old  Dispensation,  would 
be  as  unnatural  and  inexplicable  as  a  dawn 
that  should  purple  the  mountain -tops,  and, 
while  all  the  meadows  and  valleys  lay  hushed 
in  expectancy,  ready  to  break  forth  into  song, 
should  go  out  in  darkness,  and  end  in  no  day. 

The  early  Christian  fathers,  as  they  reasoned 


246  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

with  the  philosophers,  or  laid  their  apologies 
for  Christianity  at  the  feet  of  emperors,  placed 
great  stress  upon  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy 
in  the  coming  of  Christ.  The  argument  from 
j^rophecy  was  a  favorite  argument  of  those 
early  writers  who  had  awakened  from  the 
broken  dreams  and  disappointed  visions  of 
the  pagan  philosophies  into  the  clear  light  of 
the  new  Christian  hope.  Justin  Martyr  found 
in  Christianity  the  true  philosoph}^,  in  which 
the  words  of  divine  wisdom,  the  seeds  of  the 
Logos,  scattered  among  the  gentile  religions 
were  comprehended  and  fulfilled.  The  Word, 
he  believed,  was  in  the  world  before  Christ 
came  in  the  flesh  :  "  the  Word  of  whom  every 
race  of  men  were  partakers;  and  those  who 
lived  reasonably,"  *  he  said,  "  are  Christians, 
even  though  they  have  been  thought  atheists, 
as,  among  the  Greeks,  Socrates  and  Heraclitus, 
and  men  like  them ; "  and  Justin  Martyr,  ac- 
cordingly, commends  his  Christian  faith  alike 
to  Jews  and  Gentiles  as  the  consummation  of 
all  philosophy  and  the  fulfilment  of  direct  tes- 
timonies of  the  Hebrew  prophets.  Similarly  a 
genial,  classical  student  and  historian  of  the 
last  century  finds  in  the  New  Testament  the 
key  to  all  his  studies  of  the  past.  In  the  year 
1782,  Mueller  wrote  these  words  in  a  letter  to 


With  reason,  or  "  with  the  Word."     First  Apology,  46. 


IHE  FULFILMENT  OF  HISTORY.         247 

a  friend  :  ''  I  have  been  reading  the  ancients, 
without  excepting  a  single  one,  in  the  order 
of  time  in  which  they  lived.  I  know  not  why, 
it  occurred  to  me,  two  months  ago,  to  take  a 
look  into  the  New  Testament,  before  my 
studies  had  advanced  to  the  times  in  which  it 
was  written.  I  had  not  read  it  any  more  for 
many  years,  and  before  I  took  it  in  my  hand  I 
was  prejudiced  against  it.  How  shall  I  ex- 
press to  you  what  I  found  therein  ?  The  light 
which  blinded  Paul  on  the  way  to  Damascus 
w^as  for  him  not  more  wonderful,  not  more 
surprising,  than  was  for  me  what  I  suddenly 
discovered  there,  —  the  fulfilment  of  all 
hopes,  the  highest  perfection  of  philosophy, 
the  explanation  of  revolutions,  the  key  to  all 
apparent  contradictions  of  the  physical  and 
moral  w^orld,  life  and  immortality.  I  have 
read  no  book  over  it,  but  hitherto  there  has 
always  failed  me  something  in  my  studies  of 
the  early  times,  and  first  since  I  knew  our 
Lord,  all  is  clear  before  my  eyes ;  with  him 
there  is  nothing  which  I  cannot  explain."* 
Matthew  Arnold  f  regards  the  argument  from 
supernatural  predictions  as  a  line  of  evidence 
which  gives  way  at  all  points.  But  Mr.  Ar- 
nold's literary  methods  touch  only  upon  the 
surface   of   the   great  prophetic   stream   and 

*  Luthardt,  Fundamental  Truths.     Note,  17,  Lect.  iii. 
f  Literature  and  Dogma,  p.  114. 


248  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

tendency  of  history.  Criticism  may  readily 
enough  convict  Justin  Martyr  and  the  early 
-Apologists  of  laying  undue  weight  upon  par- 
ticular predictions  of  the  prophets ;  but  the 
argument  from  prophecy  goes  deeper  than  the 
text  of  Scripture  ;  and  the  preparatory  signifi- 
cance of  all  pre-Christian  history,  which  made 
so  profound  an  impression  upon  Mueller,  is  its 
inner  and  abiding  sense.  Single  texts  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  and  definite  predictions  of 
the  prophets,  may  still,  according  to  a  critical 
scholarship,  be  more  important,  and  less  easily 
dissolved  into  general  moral  platitudes,  than 
Mr.  Arnold  w^ould  allow;*  but  the  question 
of  a  divine  life  in  history,  specially  revealed 
through  Israel,  and  finally  incarnate  in  the 
Word,  is  not  a  mere  question  of  proof-texts 
and  interpretations  of  particular  Scriptures. 
In  the  argument  from  prophecy  we  have  to  do 
with  a  forest,  not  with  a  single  bough  or  a 
basket  of  leaves ;  with  the  whole  trend  of  a 
coast,  not  with  single  headlands  or  inlets  of 
the  sea ;  with  a  zone  of  constellations,  not 
with  scattered  stars.  We  have  to  do  with 
the  whole  tenor  of  Scripture,  with  the  pro- 


*  The  critical  discussion  of  particular  prophetic  predictions 
would  carry  us  beyond  our  bounds  ;  wc  cannot,  however,  dismiss 
with  Mr.  Arnold's  gracious  wave  of  the  hand  several  prophecies 
which  seem  to  have  been  remarkably  fulfilled.  We  are  not  always 
satisfied  with  the  rationalists'  short  method  with  prophecy  ;  viz, : 
the  bringing  the  writer  down  to  the  times  of  which  he  writes. 
11* 


THE  ARGUMENT  FROM  PROPHECY.     249 

longed  course  of  centuries  of  history  ;  with 
the  multitudinous  testimonies  of  the  human 
soul  in  many  generations;  with  the  arrange- 
ments and  combinations  of  many  events  in 
one  continuous  and  resplendent  revelation  of 
the  glory  of  the  Lord.  Not  only,  as  Justin 
Martyr,  with  a  more  catholic  sense  of  Christ 
in  history  than  is  sometimes  manifested  among 
ourselves,  thought,  was  the  Word  with  all  who 
lived  reasonably,  but,  also,  Israel  was  itself  a 
prophet,  a  messenger  sent  to  prepare  the  way 
of  the  Lord.  The  history  is  itself  strangely 
prophetic.  Mr.  Arnold  lays  down  as  the  first 
law  of  reasonableness  in  our  judgments  that 
we  should  be  acquainted  with  the  best  that 
has  been  thought  and  said;  but  nothing  to 
better  purpose  has  been  said  concerning  pro- 
phecy than  Herder's  word  that  the  *'  whole  Old 
Testament  with  the  nature  of  its  religion  is  to 
be  regarded  as  one  great  prophecy  ;  "  or  than 
Dorner's  comment  upon  Herder's  saying,  that 
''  thereby  whatever  is  lost  in  untenable  verbal 
predictions  is  richly  renewed ;  "  that  with  "  a 
prophecy  of  words  "  we  have  "  a  prophecy  of 
reality."  *  Through  the  perspective  of  bibli- 
cal history  we  look  down  a  real  line  of  pro- 
phecy. The  angel  in  the  Apocalypse  had  a 
broader  and  better   understanding  than  Mr. 


*  Geschichte  d.  prot.  Theologie,  s.  861. 


250  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

Arnold  of  the  argument  from  prophecy  when 
he  said  :  "  The  testimony  of  Jesus  is  the  spirit 
of  prophecy." 

In  this  larger  view  of  prophecy  two  leading 
lines  of  evidence,  two  great  courses  of  histor- 
ical development,  can  be  traced  to  their  point 
of  meeting  in  the  Christ.  The  one  is  the 
progress  of  the  educational  purpose  of  the 
God  of  the  Bible.  There  is  a  growing  reve- 
lation of  truth,  the  signs  of  which  all  point  to 
the  coming  of  the  great  Teacher  with  his  final 
doctrine.  In  a  preceding  chapter  we  have 
marked  the  signs  of  a  great  process  of  divine 
education  of  man  going  on  through  the  un- 
folding history  of  Israel.  If  our  reasoning 
has  not  been  all  in  the  air ;  if  we  have  been 
dealing  with  divine  ideas  that  passed  into  in- 
stitutions, laws,  customs,  types ;  if  we  have 
been  following,  in  one  word,  a  real  historical 
revelation, — then  we  ought  to  view  the  life  and 
doctrine  of  Christ  in  its  relation  to  this  vast 
educational  and  reformatory  work  of  God  in 
Israel;  and,  beheld  in  that  relation,  he  who 
spake  as  never  man  spake  comes,  nevertheless, 
not  as  a  sudden  wonder  of  history,  but  as  the 
fulfilment  of  the  whole  truth  of  God  im- 
planted and  growing  through  the  past.  All 
that  has  been  said  of  the  educational  methods 
and  design  of  God  in  the  Old  Testament  is  in 
keeping  with    the   manner   in   which    Christ 


THE  FINISHED  COURSE  OF  EDUCATION.   2^\ 

comes  not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil,  the  law  and 
the  prophets.  His  voice  startled  the  syna- 
gogue, and  his  word  destroyed  the  temple ; 
but  the  wisdom  of  God,  which  had  been 
struggling  through  all  the  errors  of  the  dark, 
clouded  past,  was  made  perfect  in  his  Gospel. 
Scribes  and  rabbis,  as  we  have  seen,  could  not 
have  deduced  his  new  truth  from  their  Scrip- 
tures or  their  traditions  ;  but  when  Christ 
brought  it  from  heaven  it  was  found  to  be  the 
perfect  expression  of  all  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  education  for  generations  had  been  trying 
to  say.  Christ's  word,  when  once  it  is  spoken 
on  earth,  is  the  divine  word  which  completes 
the  broken  words  of  the  prophets,  and  fulfils 
the  Scriptures.  That  which  was  partial  in  the 
divine  teaching  heretofore,  disappears.  The 
defects  of  the  preparatory  stages  are  removed  ; 
human  misunderstandings  of  the  earlier  les- 
sons are  corrected  when  the  end  is  reached, 
and  the  mystery  of  the  ages  is  revealed. 
When  the  revelation  of  God  is  fully  come, 
old  truths,  but  dimly  seen,  or  half  revealed,  or 
strangely  confused,  in  the  twilight  of  an 
earlier  hour,  are  seen  in  the  distinctness  of  the 
day.  As  many  objects  of  a  landscape  appear 
as  shadowy  forms  in  the  first  glimmer  of  the 
dawn,  the  distant  and  the  near  being  alike 
indistinguishable — far-off  and  lofty  objects 
starting   suddenly   like    spectres   out   of   the 


252  OLD   FAJTJ/S  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

mists  j  list  before  us ;  but  when  the  sun  is 
risen  all  things  assume  their  true  proportions, 
the  horizon  recedes  into  the  distance,  and  all 
confusion  of  vision  ceases  :  so  the  truths  of 
God's  kingdom  and  its  vast  prospects  lay 
half  revealed  and  half  concealed  before  the 
prophets  of  old ;  the  present  and  the  future 
often  seemed  to  them  alike  close  at  hand ;  far- 
oif  events  were  dispensations  impending  over 
their  own  times ;  dim  visions  of  distant  ages 
rose  unexpectedly  before  them,  near  at  hand, 
out  of  the  great  wonder  and  awe  in  which 
they  walked  ; — but  Jesus'  coming  brought  out 
into  clear  certainty  the  kingdom  of  God  and 
its  verities  ;  and  his  disciples,  the  children  of 
the  light  and  of  the  day,  went  on  their  way 
rejoicing  in  the  revelation  of  the  mystery  of 
the  ages.  The  Gospel  from  above  fulfilled 
and  dismissed  the  preparatory  truth  and 
teaching,  and  ushered  in  the  new  dispensation 
of  the  Spirit.  Viewed,  then,  as  the  culmina- 
tion and  end  of  a  great  supernatural  course 
of  human  education — of  a  course  of  divine 
historical  object-lessons,  of  truths  embodied  in 
events,  and  enforced  through  the  providential 
guidance  of  a  chosen  people — the  life  of  Jesus, 
separate  though  it  is  from  all  other  lives, 
and  his  doctrine,  in  all  its  originality,  seem  no 
more  to  be  an  isolated  and  incredible  phe- 
nomenon :  but  the  mission  of  the  Teacher  sent 


THE  COMPLETED  COURSE  OF  HISTORY.   253 

from  God  has  its  appointed  place  and  neces- 
sity in  the  very  plan  of  the  God  of  history. 

But  here,  also,  we  must  rise  above  the  de- 
fects of  a  merely  intellectual  conception  of 
history  and  revelation.  Life  is  more  than  a 
process  of  thought,  history  is  richer  than  a 
development  of  the  Hegelian  idea ;  revelation 
is  a  larger  and  diviner  gift  than  the  inculca- 
tion of  a  system  of  truth.  It  is,  as  wq  have 
seen,  a  manifestation  of  God  in  deed  as  well 
as  in  word  ;  an  impartation  to  man  through  a 
continuous  giving,  from  generation  to  gener- 
ation, of  God's  own  Spirit  and  love  ;  it  is  the 
life  of  God  in  man,  and  with  man,  and  for  man. 
And  in  this  largest  and  divinest  sense  the  his- 
tory of  Israel  is  as  a  whole  a  prophecy  of  the 
incarnation.  Christ  came  as  the  most  perfect 
possible  impartation  and  revelation  in  human 
form  of  the  very  life  of  God  with  the  world 
and  in  the  world ;  and  all  that  God  had  been 
graciously  doing  and  becoming  in  history,  as 
well  as  teaching  and  saying,  reaches  its  perfect 
result,  bears  its  final  fruit,  in  the  Son  of  man. 
He  was  the  life,  says  the  beloved  disciple,  and 
the  life  was  the  light  of  the  world.  Jesus 
Christ  was  a  divine  fact,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
disciples,  before  Christianity  became  a  doc- 
trine of  their  understandings.  Christianity 
was  a  divine  fact,  full  of  life  and  power,  be- 
fore it  was  a  creed  of  the  Church.     And  for 


2  54  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

this  final  divine  fact  of  revelation  all  the 
preceding  events  and  dispensations  were  fitted 
up  and  arranged.  This  is  the  other  aspect  of 
the  argument  from  prophecy  to  which  we  re- 
ferred. The  providential  arrangement  of  the 
historical  scenes  for  the  coming  at  last  of  the 
Son  of  man,  is  the  great  supernatural  fact  of 
history,  which  rationalism  can  never  quite 
explain  away.  Though  we  may  regard  event 
after  event,  and  life  after  life,  as  merely  nat- 
ural occurrences,  yet,  after  all  that  should  be 
admitted,  another  more  marvellous  fact  re- 
mains, and  one  more  difficult  of  explanation. 
We  have  to  give  a  reason  for  the  order  of  the 
facts,  for  the  perspective  of  the  history.  The 
combination  of  events,  their  adaptations  and 
progress,  and  the  deep  design  running  through 
them  all,  and  making  all  tend  towards  one  far- 
off  end,  one  divine  result, — how  shall  they  who 
have  no  eyes  for  the  working  of  spiritual 
powers,  and  for  the  presence  of  God  in  his- 
tory, account  for  these  things  ?  As  one  enter- 
ing some  mansion  might  readily  understand 
for  what  purpose  its  several  chambers  and 
connected  apartments  had  been  provided  and 
fitted  up,  but  would  wonder  what  was  about 
to  take  place,  should  he  observe  that  the 
whole  house  was  put  in  order  apparently  for 
some  great  event — all  its  rooms  being  lighted 
and   in   waiting — and   his  wonder   would  at 


THE  COMPLETED  COURSE  OF  HISTORY.  255 

once  cease,  and  all  become  clear,  should  he 
hear  the  sound  of  music  from  the  hall,  and 
the  bridegroom's  voice  among  his  friends  :  so 
we  pass  from  scene  to  scene  through  this  great 
history,  and  all  things  seem  prepared  and 
waitinof  for  some  cominor  event,  and  we  under- 
stand  at  once  the  meaning  of  it  all  when  we 
hear  that  at  last  the  bridegroom  is  come,  and 
all  things  are  now  ready  for  the  marriage  sup- 
per of  the  Lamb. 

The  design  of  the  whole  is  the  real  proph- 
ecy of  Israel's  career.  The  particular  letters 
of  this  message  may  belong  to  the  ordinary 
alphabet,  but  they  are  arranged  in  an  intelli- 
gible order,  for  an  extraordinary  communica- 
tion. The  arrangement  is  the  ultimate  super- 
natural fact.  It  is  not  enough  for  criticism 
to  tell  us  that  particular  predictions  are  mean- 
ingless. We  are  not  anxious  to  dispute  about 
the  letters  or  the  types.  The  history,  as  God 
has  put  its  letters  together,  spells  the  ador- 
able name  of  the  Messiah.  Christ,  therefore, 
in  his  divine  originality,  is,  nevertheless,  as 
the  Word  made  flesh,  not  a  sudden  appearance 
— a  causeless  miracle  of  history;  for  in  this 
view  he  is  seen  to  be  the  real  unity  of  the  Old 
and  the  New  Testaments.  The  New  Testa- 
ment is  not  evolved  from  the  Old,  yet  it  can- 
not be  separated  from  it;  for  both  proceed 
from  the  same  divine  life  which  has  been  with 


256  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

man  in  all  his  history  of  ignorance  and  sin, 
and  which  is  the  true  light  which  lighteth 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world. 

As  the  Son  of  man  seems  no  more  a  stranger, 
but  the  expected  heir,  when  we  look  up  the 
perspective  of  Hebrew  history,  and  behold 
him  as  the  fulfilment  of  its  whole  prophecy  ; 
so  also,  when  we  look  back  through  the  his- 
tory of  his  Church,  the  incarnation  seems  to  be 
the  necessary  beginning,  the  natural  cause,  of 
the  continuous  life  which  has  been  in  the 
world  since  he  came.  Take  the  divineness 
from  that  life,  and  whole  series  of  events  are 
thrown  into  confusion,  and  men  and  women, 
ill  every  generation  since,  are  made  to  live  in 
a  manner  unaccountable  and  most  absurd. 
Take  that  one  hour  at  Bethlehem  out  of  hu- 
man history,  and  eighteen  centuries  of  hours 
are  left  but  partially  explained.  The  scepti- 
cism which  cannot  see  the  divine  in  Jesus 
Christ,  becomes  blind  to  the  human  in  Peter, 
and  John,  and  Paul.  In  order  to  look  upon 
Jesus  as  altogether  like  one  of  us,  it  is 
compelled  to  view  the  disciples  in  unnatural 
lights.  In  order  to  escape  from  the  diflScul- 
ties  of  supposing  miracles  in  the  realm  of 
nature,  it  invents  miracles  in  the  I'ealm  of 
mind  and  morals.  In  order  to  avoid  ))elief  in 
special  manifestations  of  the  supernatural  in 
nature,  for  which  we  can  render  a  reason,  and 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  A  NEW  HISTORY.    257 

which  we  may  bring  under  a  more  general 
law,  it  introduces  anomalies  of  human  con- 
duct, for  which  we  can  give  no  good  reason, 
and  which  we  cannot  bring  under  any  known 
law  of  experience.  When  faith  in  the  super- 
natural in  Christianity  is  thrown  away,  the 
key  is  lost  which  can  unlock  the  meaning  of 
the  Acts  and  the  Epistles  of  the  apostles,  and 
open  passage  after  passage  of  Christian  his- 
tory. Here,  also,  the  combinations  of  the 
forces  of  Christianity,  the  grouping  of  events, 
the  arrangements  of  the  historic  stage,  indi- 
cate a  higher  ordering  and  a  divine  power. 
Though  the  five  causes  which  Gibbon  has  as- 
signed as  the  reasons  for  the  spread  of  Chris- 
tianity may  be  intelligible  on  natural  grounds, 
nevertheless,  as  John  Henry  Newman"^  has 
strikingly  shown,  the  coincidence  of  these 
causes  is  left  by  Gibbon  unexplained  ; — but 
this  coincidence  of  causes,  and  this  combina- 
tion of  forces,  the  result  of  which  is  a  continu- 
ous, growing  Christianity,  constitute  a  resid- 
ual providential  part  of  modern  history — 
they  are  the  undeniable  and  living  witness  of 
Christianity  to  Christ. 

We  have  gained,  then,  thus  far  a  view  of  the 
naturalness  of  the  person  and  life  of  Christ, 
when  considered  as  a  whole,  complete  in  itself, 


*  Grammar  of  Assent,  p.  445. 


258  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

and  also  when  contemplated  in  its  appointed 
place  in  the  midst  of  a  divine  order  of  human 
history.  But  our  horizon  enlarges  as  we  pro- 
ceed. Human  history  is  only  a  brief  span  of 
time  ;  the  existence  of  our  race  is  only  for  one 
day  of  God's  thousands  of  years  ;  and  the  pro- 
cess by  which  the  worlds  are  made  embraces 
vaster  cycles  of  ages.  When  we  endeavor  to 
place  ourselves  in  imagination  nearer  the  begin- 
ning, and  to  gaze  down  those  vast  vistas  of 
time,  through  those  great  creative  processes,  on 
to  the  advent  of  niau,  and  the  coming  of  the 
ISon  of  man, — how  then  does  the  Christ  appear  ? 
unexpected,  unheralded,  a  causeless  wonder,  or 
as  the  appointed  heir  and  natural  head  over 
all  ?  The  apostle  who  more  than  any  other 
possessed  a  Christian  philosophy  of  history,  in 
several  passages,*  represents  the  Christ  of  his 
faith  as  the  head  of  the  creation.  He  seemed 
to  see  the  whole  creation  summed  up  and  per- 
fected in  the  second  man,  the  Lord  from 
heaven.  The  time  had  not  then  come  for  that 
germinant  truth  of  the  Pauline  Epistles  to 
obtain  in  the  thought  of  the  Christian  world 
its  full  development.  It  is  but  beginning  to 
obtain  it  in  the  theology  of  to-day.  The 
great  apostle  lacked  the  scientific  knowledge 
of   the   world's   whole   prophetic  past  which 


*  Ep.  i.  10,  22 ;  Col.  i.  15-20 ;  1st  Cor.  xv.  25-28,  45-47. 


THE  HEAD    OF    THE    CREATION.  259 

miglit  have  enabled  him  to  carry  out  in  a 
grand  apostrophe  his  own  inspired  idea  of  the 
natural  headship  of  Christ.  Subsequent  theol- 
ogy has  labored  to  grasp  the  natural  relation- 
ship of  Christ  to  the  human  race  as  an  essen- 
tial element  in  the  Christian  doctrine  of  sin 
and  redemption.  We  believe  that  Paul's  great 
truth  is  not  yet  exhausted,  and  that  a  scientif- 
ic age  will  eventually  leave  it  still  farther  ad- 
vanced, and  possessed  of  commanding  author- 
ity over  reverent  minds.  Already  Paul's  idea 
of  Christ  has  begun  to  triumph  in  the  midst 
of  the  spoils  of  our  sciences.  It  was  not  many 
years  ago  that  Hugh  Miller  advanced  Paul's 
truth  to  still  larger  honor  as  he  read  from 
nature's  own  indelible  records  a  mute  proph- 
ecy of  the  coming  of  the  perfect  man.  The 
lower  dynasties,  whose  records  the  geologist 
reads  in  the  tables  of  stone,  give  place  to  the 
higher,  and  never  return.  The  dynasty  of  the 
future,  which  shall  not  pass  away,  for  beyond 
it  progress  cannot  go,  is  to  be  the  kingdom  of 
God  himself  in  the  form  of  man.  ''  We  find 
the  point  of  elevation  never  to  be  exceeded 
meetly  coincident  with  the  final  period,  never 
to  be  terminated — the  infinite  in  height  har- 
moniously associated  with  the  eternal  in  dura- 
tion. Creation  and  Creator  meet  at  one  point, 
and  in  one  person.  The  long  ascending  line 
from  dead  matter  to  man  has  been  a  progress 


26o  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

Godwards,  not  an  asymptotical  progress,  but 
destined  from  the  beginning  to  furnish  a  point 
of  union  ;  and  occupying  that  point  as  true  God 
and  true  man — as  Creator  and  created — we 
recognize  the  adorable  monarch  of  all  the 
future."  *  But  the  authority  of  Hugh  Miller  is 
already  outgrown  ;  does  the  advance  of  science 
since  his  day  compel  us  to  leave  his  interpreta- 
tions of  the  "  geologic  prophecies "  with  the 
discarded  biblical  expositions  of  the  theolo- 
gians who  mistrusted  him  ?  or  does  it  enable  us 
to  say  with  clearer  confidence  that  the  ways  of 
the  Creator  through  the  creation  slowly  yet 
surely  converge  towards,  and  only  can  find 
their  destined  meeting-point  and  end  in,  some 
form  so  perfect  and  complete  as  to  be  the 
crown  of  all  God's  works,  and  the  express 
image  of  his  person  ?  In  one  word,  ai'e  we 
warranted  in  believing  that  the  creation  can 
stop  short  of  the  Christ?  Can  tlie  creative 
process  stop  short,  and  return  upon  itself,  when 
the  human  race  is  reached,  and  man's  day  on 
earth  shall  be  finished  ?  or  does  the  manifest 
destiny  of  the  creation  point  to  something  still 
human,  but  diviner  ? 

The  question  just  stated  is  partly  a  question 
of  fact.  But  it  is  also  more  than  a  question 
of   fact;  it   is   a   question   of   interpretation. 


♦  Testimony  of  the  Rocks,  p.  178. 


THE  ASCENT  OF  LIFE,  26 1 

Natural  science  must  determine  the  facts  ; — de- 
termine them  as  her  own  legitimate  work,  and 
without  interference.  We  have  no  right  to 
disturb  by  so  much  as  a  heart-beat  the  scien- 
tific investigation  of  the  facts  of  nature.  Feel- 
ing has  no  business  in  the  laboratory.  Clear, 
precise,  careful  perception  is  the  first  duty  of 
natural  science.  But  when  the  facts  are  once 
seen  and  determined,  their  interpretation  is 
another  matter.  Other,  and  higher,  powers 
must  enter  upon  this  work.  Natural  science 
must  pass  her  facts  over  to  moral  science  for 
the  final  interpretation  of  them.  Scientific 
perceptions  are  to  be  taken  up  into  metaphysi- 
cal and  moral  conclusions.  They  cannot  be 
rationally  co-ordinated,  and  really  understood, 
until  they  are.  And  it  is  possible  that  a 
strictly  scientific  determination  of  the  law  of 
evolution  may  just  miss  the  truth,  and  fail  of 
the  real  secret  at  nature's  heart,  because  it  re- 
fuses to  call  in  the  aid  of  the  spirit  that  is  in 
man,  in  order  to  divine  the  interpretation  of 
its  visions. 

Our  first  concern,  then,  must  be  to  go  to  our 
natural  sciences  for  any  facts  ^vhich  may  bear 
upon  our  inquiry.  Two  results  of  modern  sci- 
ence claim  at  once  our  attention  as  of  possible 
spiritual  significance.  The  one  is  the  ascent 
of  life.  The  mode  or  laws  of  that  ascent 
may  still  be  matters  of  scientific  questioning ; 


262  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

for,  notwithstanding  the  positiveness  of  the 
pronounced  evolutionists,  there  are  still  writers 
whose  scientific  attainments  we  cannot  ques- 
tion, who  are  not  yet  satisfied  as  to  the  mode 
and  manner  of  evolution.  Whether  the  ascent 
of  types  has  been  a  gradual  rise,  without  leaps 
or  breaks,  or  any  gaps  in  the  evidence ; 
whether  it  should  be  represented  by  an  in- 
clined plane,  or  by  a  succession  of  steps; 
whether  catastrophic  upheavals,  and  the  in- 
troduction of  new  forces,  or  forms,  at  marked 
epochs,  into  the  creation,  should  be  admitted 
on  strictly  scientific  grounds, — we  are  neither 
concerned  nor  qualified  to  determine.  We 
cannot  find  these  questions  determined  for  us, 
or  put  beyond  all  doubt,  by  those  who  do  seem 
qualified  to  judge.  At  least  the  teachers 
difEer  among  themselves.  Perhaps  a  far 
broader  and  more  patient  induction  of  facts 
may  be  still  necessary  before  man  can  write, 
what  an  inspired  prophet  did  not  attempt  to 
wi'ite,  a  thorough  and  perfectly  correct  nat- 
ural history  of  the  creation.  It  is  possible 
that  there  may  be  more  "  incident  forces  "  to 
be  taken  into  the  account  than  appear  in 
Herbert  Spencer's  diagrams.  The  last  word 
of  science  is  not  yet  spoken.  But  certain  re- 
sults, however,  may  be  regarded  as  established  ; 
and  the  gradual  ascent  of  life  is  an  observed 
fact.     Whatever   the  manner  or  the   law  of 


SELECTION  OF   THE  INDIVIDUAL.       263 

it,  the  fact  of  it  is  beyond  question.  Whatever 
may  be  the  ultimate  form  of  our  evolutionary 
philosophy,  the  fact  is  that  this  world  is  one 
great  development.  Alike  in  the  physical 
constitution  of  the  globe,  and  in  the  forms  of 
life  which  have  appeared  upon  it,  each  age 
has  surpassed  the  preceding,  and  prepared  the 
way  for  the  better  age  to  follow. 

The  other  result  of  modern  science,  which 
is  significant  in  this  inquiry,  is  the  fact  that 
the  development  of  the  creation  has  all  along 
been  a  process  of  differentiation  and  individ- 
ualization, a  process  the  tendency  of  which 
throuo-hout  has  been  to  evoke  ever  more 
highly  organized  specific  and  individual  forms. 
Indeed,  according  to  the  evolutionists,  some 
favored  individual  of  one  species  constitutes 
the  variation  which  is  the  beginning  of  a  new 
species.  The  line  of  progress  is  through 
chosen  individuals.  All  things  conspire  to- 
gether to  produce  the  highest,  best,  most 
richly  endow^ed  individual  form,  and  that 
brings  in  the  new  species.  If  this  law,  there- 
fore, is  to  continue,  the  goal  of  the  creation 
must  be  not  merely  some  supreme  type  in 
which  all  the  energies  of  the  creation  exhaust 
their  power,  but  rather  in  the  most  specialized 
and  perfectly  organized  specimen,  or  individ- 
ual realizatioia  of  that  last  highest  type.  Our 
scientists  have  grasped  firmly  this  great  law 


264  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

of  diiferentiation  and  individualization  which 
runs  throuofh  the  creation,  and  determines  the 
succession  of  life  upon  the  earth ;  but  possibly 
they  may  not  have  fathomed  the  deeper  moral 
significance  of  this  first  principle  of  things,  or 
divined  the  Christian  fulfilment  of  their  own 
leading  truth.  Herbert  Sj^encer,  who  has 
made  the  law  of  differentiation  a  guiding 
princi23le  of  his  thinking,  asks  of  the  theolo- 
gians if  it  is  not  just  possible  that  there 
should  be  a  higher  form  of  life  than  that  of 
which  we  can  gain  a  conception  fi-om  our  own 
personality.*  We  follow  the  struggle  of  ex- 
istence upwards  from  dim  nebulous  begin- 
nings to  substantial  worlds,  and  animate 
forms,  and  sensibility,  and  the  dawn  of  con- 
sciousness, and  the  rich  personal  life  of  man  ; 
and  we,  too,  ask,  if  the  process  shall  stop 
there?  if  the  ascent  of  life  shall  end  in  the 
broad  level  of  humanity,  or  reach  one  crown- 
ing point  ?  Is  it  not  '^  just  possible  "  that 
there  may  be  a  higher  and  diviner  realization 
of  nature  and  humanity  than  our  personal 
consciousness  ?  Have  we  reached  in  the  tyj)e 
of  the  human  soul  the  last  possible  goal  ?  Is 
there  still  to  come  the  One  in  whom  the  whole 
prophetic  ascent  of  life,  through  ever  more 
favored  individual  forms,  shall  be  fulfilled — 


First  Principles,  p.  109. 


SELECTION   OF    THE  INDIVIDUAL.       265 

the  second  man,  the  Lord  from  heaven  ? 
Clearly  it  would  be  in  accordance  with  the 
whole  analogy  of  the  previous  ascent  and  dif- 
ferentiation of  nature,  if,  after  the  common 
plane  of  humanity  has  been  gained,  the  jDro- 
cess  of  selection  should  still  continue ;  if  we 
should  find  evidence  within  the  historic  period 
of  the  natural  selection  of  an  Abraham  and 
his  descendants;  if  a  thousand  forces  should 
combine  to  call  forth  a  peculiar  people;  if 
upon  that  highly  favored  stem  should  appear 
at  last  humanity's  consummate  flower  !  It 
would  be  in  accordance  with  the  whole  course 
of  nature,  and  a  workino"  on  to  still  hisfher 
issues  of  its  organic  law  of  differentiation,  if 
the  coming^  of  man  should  be  followed  in  the 
fulness  of  time  by  the  advent  of  the  Son 
of  man,  who  should  introduce  a  new  reiofn 
upon  the  earth,  a  kingdom  of  God  in  which 
all  should  be  fulfilled.  We  take  the  "  just 
possible "  of  Mr.  Spencer's  question  as  a 
scientific  permission  to  look  up  through  na- 
ture's evolution  to  a  still  'diviner  issue  than  a 
human  soul;  and  we  do  but  follow  nature's 
innate  prophecy  when  we  seek  for  our  Lord. 
Viewed  through  the  perspective  which  our 
evolutionary  science  has  opened,  the  glorious 
form  of  the  Son  of  man  is  not  unnatural,  not 
a  miracle ;  no  more  without  preparation  and 
heralding  than  the  coming  of  any  higher  type 
12 


266  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

in  the  great  ascent  of  life,  or  than  the  adv^ent 
of  man.  If  the  momentum  of  life  makes  the 
birth  of  man  possible,  so  that  a  being  pos- 
sessed of  sufficient  intelligence,  in  some  earlier 
geological  age,  might  have  confidently  pre- 
dicted man's  coming  at  some  future  time  :  so 
equally  the  momentum  of  the  creative  purpose 
makes  possible  the  inti'oduction  of  a  reign  be- 
yond the  kingdom  of  man,  so  that  before 
Christ  came  in  the  flesh  a  superior  intelligence 
might  have  read  from  the  succession  of  life 
on  the  earth,  and  the  advance  of  human  his- 
tory, a  prophecy  of  the  day  of  the  Messiah. 
The  apostle  may  have  gained  the  widest  gen- 
eralization, and  the  last  philosophy  of  the 
creation,  when,  in  a  great  moment  of  inspira- 
tion, he  saw  first  the  natural  order,  and  after- 
ward the  spiritual ;  and  learned  that  the  first 
man  is  of  the  earth,  earthy,  but  the  second 
man  is  the  Lord  from  heaven.  It  is  just  pos- 
sible— to  use  again  Mr.  Spencer's  permission 
— that  in  a  personality  which  is  human,  yet 
more  than  human  (as  man  sums  up  in  himself 
all  the  life  in  the  earth  before  him,  yet  is  him- 
self more  than  all  beneath  him),  the  goal  of 
the  whole  creation  may  have  been  attained, 
and  that  through  him  who  is  appointed  heir 
of  all  thinirs  a  new  kino^dom  which  shall 
supersede  all  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  has 
been  already  ushered  in. 


MORAL  INTERPRETATION  OF  NATURE.  267 

If  it  be  objected  that  it  is  impossible  for  us 
to  conceive  of  a  divinely  human  personality, 
we  may  fall  back  again  upon  Mr.  Spencer's 
assertion,  and  apply  to  the  Messiah,  in  whom 
we  believe,  the  words  which  he  uses  of  his 
imagined  superhuman  personality.  "  It  is 
true,"  Mr.  Spencer  says,"^  "  that  we  are  totally 
unable  to  conceive  any  such  higher  mode  of 
being.  But  this  is  not  a  reason  for  question- 
ing its  existence ;  it  is  rather  the  reverse." 

But  we  have  already  passed  to  a  question 
of  the  interpretation  of  the  appearance  and 
laws  of  nature.  And  no  Scripture,  whether 
written  on  the  rocks  or  on-  parchment,  is  of 
any  private  interpretation.  The  specialist  is 
never  the  best  interpreter.  A  more  general 
culture,  a  broader  discipline,  the  habit  of  ex- 
ercising many  powers  of  our  complex  being, 
are  indispensable  to  the  art  of  interpretation. 
Our  scientific  specialists  are  in  danger  of  giv- 
ing us  only  the  private  interpretation.  Some- 
thing besides  scientific  training  is  indispensa- 
ble to  the  broad  and  larger  interpretation  of 
the  Scripture  of  nature.  After  the  evolution- 
ist has  discovered  a  law  or  course  of  nature, 
by  the  very  limitations  of  his  special  studies, 
and  the  acquired  habits  necessary  to  his  work, 
he  may  be  incapacitated  from  acting  the  part 


*  First  Principles,  p.  109. 


268  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

of  an  interpreter  of  nature's  truth,  and  of 
discerning  the  relation  of  what  he  has  dis- 
covered to  spiritual  phenomena  and  the  moral 
order  of  human  history.  We  ought  to  read 
the  facts  of  physical  science  in  the  light  of 
moral  science,  in  order  to  obtain  a  philosophy 
which  shall  be  more  than  a  private  interpre- 
tation of  nature,  and  life,  and  destiny. 

It  remains  for  us,  therefore,  to  interpret 
this  law  of  ascent  and  individualization  of  life 
in  connection  with  moral  and  spiritual  expe- 
rience ;  to  ask  whether  the  prophecy  of  na- 
ture, and  the  proj)hecy  of  the  human  soul, 
combine  in  one  growing  Messianic  hope. 
Positive  science  cannot  stop  us  on  the  thresh- 
old of  a  moi-al  interpretation  of  its  phenom- 
ena by  any  denial  of  the  possibility  'of  an 
influx  of  spiritual  or  divine  influences  into  the 
heart  of  natural  processes.  To  claim  that 
evolution  necessarily  excludes  any  impulse 
from  without,  or  the  permeation  of  nature 
with  spiritual  force,  is  to  beg  beforehand  the 
very  question  of  fact  at  issue,  and  to  shut  out 
of  the  world,  upon  the  testimony  of  the 
senses,  forces  which,  were  they  operating  ever 
so  powerfully  before  our  eyes,  we  should  not 
be  able  to  see  ;  and  of  whose  presence,  or  ab- 
sence, in  any  phenomena,  therefore,  the 
senses  are  not  competent  witnesses.  Science, 
thus,  would  exclude  religion  by  irrelevant  tes- 


MORAL  INTERPRETATION  OF  NATURE.   269 

timony.  The  final  question  is,  in  general,  not 
whether  the  creation  appears  to  be  a  contin- 
uous natural  evolution,  but  whether,  as  moral 
and  rational  beings,  possessed  of  our  own  un- 
seen life  in  self-consciousness,  we  must  not 
give  to  that  which  appears  a  higher  and  di- 
viner significance  ?  The  immediate  creative 
or  preservative  activity  of  a  personal  God 
would  not  make  any  change  in  the  appearance 
of  things.  They  would  seem  to  the  senses  to 
come  of  themselves,  though  a  God  called  them 
into  beino'.  If  the  Creator  should  make  a  new 
world  before  our  eyes,  we  should  see  only 
what  the  astronomer  sees  when  a  new  star 
shines  into  his  telescope.  Though  the  Al- 
mighty stretches  forth  his  hand,  the  finger  of 
God  is  never  visible  save  to  the  spirit  of  the 
projDhet.  Our  special  question  at  present, 
then,  is,  whether  when  we  attempt  as  moral, 
spiritual  beings  to  interpret  natural  evolution, 
to  realize  its  invisible  moral  side,  to  divine 
the  real  purpose  at  the  heart  of  things,  we  are 
not  led  on  to  the  hope  of  some  high  spiritual 
fulfilment  of  the  whole  course  of  nature; 
and  whether  the  coming  of  the  divine  life, 
in  the  form  of  man,  is  not  the  goal  and 
end  of  the  creation  prepared  for  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world  ?  To  answer  this 
question,  we  must  bring  to  this  apparent  evo- 
lution of  life  and  struggle  of  nature  upwards 


270  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

towards  the  most  individualized  and  perfect 
form,  reasonings  and  divinations  which  we 
draw  from  other  sources  than  those  of  nat- 
ural science.  We  must  go  and  consult  the 
oracles  of  our  own  hearts ;  we  must  read  na- 
ture in  the  spirit's  light.  Our  moral  intuitions, 
our  religious  feeling,  have  a  legitimate  place, 
and  work  of  their  own  to  do,  in  our  final  phi- 
losophy of  the  creation. 

The  true  moral  interpretation  of  the  course 
of  nature  is  indicated,  first,  by  the  testimony 
of  the  human  soul  to  the  need  of  a  Messiah. 
We  do  not  fall  back  in  this  assertion  simply 
upon  the  familiar  argument  of  man's  need  of 
a  mediator,  which  may  be  drawn  from  the 
universality  of  religious  sacrifices.  We  ap- 
peal, also,  to  the  general  desire  of  mankind 
for  some  embodied  ideal,  some  realized  ex- 
ample of  what  is  truly  adorable  and  divine. 
Seiieca  acknowledges  the  need  of  a  moral 
ideal,  a  pattern  by  which  conduct  may  be 
shaped.''*  It  is  a  singular  and  significant 
moi-al  fact  that  people  in  general  do  make  for 
themselves  some  Christ.  Somethino:  takes  the 
place  to  them  of  Christ,  and  they  find  their 
life  in  it.  They  cannot  live  without  imagin- 
ing something  which,  however  vaguely  or  im- 
perfectly, shall  be  a  substitute  in  their  expe- 


*  Fisher,  Beginnings  of  Ch. ,  p.  174. 


NEED    OF  A  MESSIAH.  27 1 

rience  for  faith  in  the  Christ  of  our  Gospels. 
These  objects  of  veneration  and  devotion, 
which  are  made  to  answer  in  the  thoughts  the 
place  of  the  Messiah,  vary  with  different  tem- 
peraments and  degrees  of  culture — from  the 
rude  idol  of  the  untaught  savage  up  to  the  re- 
finements of  hero-worship,  or  the  surrender  of 
self  to  some  worshipful  idea.  It  is  not  wholly 
a  pious  fraud  that  has  raised  the  saints  into 
objects  of  worship.  The  human  soul  in  many 
an  hour  of  its  truest,  deepest  life  must  have 
some  altar  of  devotion.  The  Christ-want  of 
the  soul  has  led  many  to  bow  down  before 
pictures  of  saintly  beauty.  The  Christ  who 
knows  the  heart  may  find  liimself  ignorant- 
ly  worshipped  where  the  Protestant,  passing 
among  the  devotees  prostrate  in  cathedral  chap- 
els, and  gazing  coldly  at  the  pictures  over  the 
altars,  may  see  only  superstition.  A  deep 
Messianic  desire  lies,  also,  at  the  bottom  of 
hero-worship.  Even  in  these  modern  days  of 
cold  intellectualism,  it  is  said  that  incense  has 
been  offered  to  the  bust  of  Goethe,  and  the 
apotheosis  of  some  master  of  philosophy  or 
poetry  in  the  conversation  of  his  disciples  is 
hardly  an  unknown  phenomenon.  Others 
still,  Avho  call  no  man  master,  have  made  for 
themselves  a  religion  of  some  inspiring  idea, 
and  found  their  substitute  for  the  Christ  of 
history  in  that  ennobling  ideal.     Their  idea 


2  72  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

may  have  assumed  to  them  almost  visible  form 
and  shape,  and  they  have  loved  it  with  an 
almost  personal  devotion,  and  followed  it  with 
a  sacred  enthusiasm.  Liberty  has  been  to 
not  a  few  noble  souls  as  the  very  glory  of  the 
Lord,  and  they  have  sealed  their  faith  in  it 
with  their  blood.  To  others,  more  calmly  in- 
tellectual, the  Christ-need  has  assumed  a  more 
shadowy  form,  and  the  vague  conception  of 
humanity  has  become  the  object  of  their  wor- 
ship. The  future  of  humanity  represents  to 
their  minds  the  promise  of  the  Messiah.  They, 
too,  follow  a  vision,  undefined  and  changing 
as  the  cloudland  of  a  western  sky,  but  a 
vision  of  light,  the  evening  glory  of  human- 
ity's long  day  of  storm  and  darkness.  Their 
ideal  of  humanity  is  also  an  emanation  of 
the  soul's  deep  need  of  the  Christ.  A  want 
inherent  in  the  nature  of  man  is  disclosed  by 
these  habits  of  semi- worship  so  often  to  be  ob- 
served among  many  who  profess  no  faith ;  a 
necessity  inwrought  into  the  very  constitu- 
tion of  the  human  soul  is  revealed  by  these 
Messiahs  of  the  imagjinations  of  men — these 
Christs  of  the  thoughts  of  the  heart,  which 
are  of  yesterday,  or  to-day,  but  not  the  same 
forever. 

What  do  they  really  mean  ?  What  does  this 
inwrought  and  ineradicable  Christ-necessity 
of  the  human  soul  prophecy  ?      The  fact  that 


MEANING  OF  CONSTITUTIONAL   WANTS.   273 

the  most  though tful,  best,  and  noblest  souls 
must  have  a  Christ  of  some  sort ;  the  fact 
that  men  have  been  always  saying,  "  Lo,  here 
is  Christ,  lo,  there," — shows  that  we  need  for 
the  inspiration  of  our  lives  a  diviner  form 
than  we  have  seen,  and  indicates  that  the 
Christ- want  is  a  constitutional  want  of  the 
soul  of  man.  But  are  not  our  constitutional 
wants  prophetic  ?  They  carry  in  them,  if  the 
whole  analogy  of  nature  be  not  false,  the 
prophecy  of  their  o^vn  satisfaction.  The  want, 
if  constitutional,  is  itself  pledge  of  its  fulfil- 
ment to  come.  So  far  as  we  may  reason  from 
analogy,  the  deep,  universal  Christ-want  in 
human  natui-e  is  an  intimation  that  the  com- 
ing of  Christ  is  provided  for  in  the  nature  of 
things.  For  the  constitutional  wants  of  every 
creature  in  the  ascent  of  life  up  to  man  have 
been  met  in  the  conditions  of  their  existence. 
Up  to  man  there  is  a  well-balanced  law  of 
demand  and  supply,  of  need  and  satisfaction, 
in  the  struggle  of  life  and  the  conditions  of 
existence.  Constitutional  wants,  up  to  the 
needs  of  man's  spiritual  nature,  have  been 
provided  for  and  met  in  the  constitution  of 
the  world.  Capacity  and  environment  corre- 
spond. Where  the  geologist  finds  imbedded  in 
the  rock  the  fossil  bones  of  a  fish,  the  veracity 
of  nature  warrants  him  in  saying  that  there, 
some  time,  the  waters  must  have  flowed ;  for 
12* 


2  74  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

the  make  of  the  fish  required  stream  or  lake. 
The  make  of  a  bird  requires  free  air,  and  not 
until  the  heavy  vapors  of  the  carboniferous 
age  began  to  be  dispelled,  did  the  birds  ap- 
pear with  wrings  to  beat  the  breezes  above  the 
tree-tops.  The  make  of  a  mammal  requires 
solid  earth  upon  which  it  may  find  footing. 
And  the  mammalia  came  into  existence  upon 
an  earth  condensed  from  the  infinite  spaces 
for  their  dwelling-place.  Nature  is  true  up 
to  the  heart  of  man ; — shall  nature  become 
suddenly  a  false  prophet  there?  That  would 
be,  indeed,  a  drt^adful  breach  of  the  principle 
of  continuity-^a  loss  of  the  divine  veracity  in 
nature  which 'would  put  all  our  faculties  to 
confusion.  No  creature  that  exists  requires 
for  the  development  of  its  life  aught  that  it 
does  not  have,  save  man  alone.  Does  the 
flower  need  a  voice,  or  the  bird  desire  a  book  ? 
No  creatui'e  that  is  made,  save  man  alone, 
seeks  for  'what  it  cannot  find  provided  for  it 
in  the  veiy  conditions  of  its  existence.  Want 
and  enviroiiment  meet,  and  ever  adjust  them- 
selves to  the  perfect  equilibrium  of  the  econo- 
my of  natures!  The  whole  analogy,  then,  of 
created  being  supports  the  prophetic  interpre- 
tation of  ma/n's  constitutional,  spiritual  wants. 
They  are  signs  of  that  for  which  we  are  made, 
and  which,  when  our  wings  are  grown,  we 
shall  have.  '•■   They    are   intimations   to  us   of 


.       MEANING    OF   THE   CHRIST-WANT.       275 

the  purpose  of  the  faithful  Creator.  "  Thou 
openest  thine  hand,"  so  long  ago  the  Psalmist 
of  Israel  sang,  "  and  satisfiest  the  desire  of 
every  living  thing."  All  analogy  gives  us 
reason  to  expect  that  this  Scripture  will  prove 
true  of  man's  highest  needs.  Is  it  scientific  to 
regard  man  alone,  in  his  spiritual  nature  and 
hope  of  immortality,  as  an  exception  to  this 
continuous  law  of  the  development  and  satis- 
faction of  life?  In  proportion,  theiefore,  as 
the  Christ-want  of  the  human  soul  can  be 
shown  to  be  a  simple  human  want,  a  universal 
need,  underlying  the  heresies  as  well  as  cher- 
ished at  the  heart  of  the  faith  of  the  Church  ; 
coloring  the  dreams  of  the  gentile  religions 
as  well  as  glowing  in  the  visions  of  the  proph- 
ets ;  in  proportion  as  the  words  of  the  disciples, 
"  All  men  seek  for  thee,"  can  be  proved  to 
express  the  desire  of  the  nations — in  that  pro- 
portion the  Christ-necessity,  or  the  constitu- 
tional Messianic  need  of  mankind,  becomes 
the  pi'ophecy  and  pledge  of  its  own  ultimate 
satisfaction.  We  may  legitimately  and  confi- 
dently bring,  then,  the  light  of  this  inner 
moral  and  spiritual  prophecy  of  Christ  to  help 
us  interpret  those  signs  and  2:)rocesses  of 
nature  and  history  which  seem  to  point  on 
and  upwards  to  the  coming  of  a  higher  Pres- 
ence, and  the  reign  in  the  last  of  the  creative 
ages  of  the  perfect  man.     Seen  in  this  light, 


2;6  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

the  advent  of  CHrist  is,  at  least,  not  unnatural, 
not  an  unexpected  miracle ;  on  the  contrary, 
Christ's  comino:  is  natural,  as  the  risino^  of  the 
sun  to  one  watchinsr  for  the  morninor. 

But  a  profounder  and  more  satisfying  view 
of  the  naturalness  of  the  incarnation  may  be 
gained.  The  human  heart,  with  all  its  pas- 
sions and  its  impurities,  is  still  the  truest 
mirror  in  which  we  can  behold  the  Invisible 
God.  It  is  related  of  Thomas  Erskine,  of 
Linlathen,*^'''  that  once  meeting  a  shepherd  in  a 
lonely  path  in  the  Highlands,  he  greeted  him 
with  the  question,  "  Do  you  know  the  Father?  " 
and  without  waiting  for  the  reply,  he  passed 
on  his  way.  Years  afterwards  he  met  the 
same  shepherd  among  those  same  hills,  who 
recognized  him,  and  gave  him  the  answer  at 
last,  as  he  passed,  "I  know  the  Father  now." 
That  knowledge  he  had  found  in  the  experi- 
ence of  a  human  life.  It  comes  to  us,  if  it 
comes  at  all,  through  those  years  of  learning 
and  of  waiting,  in  which  our  human  hearts  are 
both  humbled  and  exalted,  both  made  empty 
and  enriched.  That  knowledge  is  the  knowl- 
edge in  which  all  moral  experiences  sum  up 
their  wisdom  of  life,  and  it  cannot  be  taught, 
for  it  is  a  revelation  coming  through  the  life 
of  man,  through  all  his  affections,  needs,  trials, 


Dean  Stanley,  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  p.  184. 


MORAL   NECESSITY  OF  INCARNATION.     2;; 

satisfactions ; — a  knowledge  of  the  heart 
which  cannot  be  taken  away.  Thus  the  Bible 
sums  up  its  revelations  of  the  Father  in  one 
intensely  human  word,  God  is  love.  The  most 
womanly  mother,  brooding'  over  the  child 
sleeping  in  her  arms,  may  give  us  a  truer  idea 
of  what  God  in  his  good  providence  is,  than 
we  might  gain  from  all  the  abstractions  of  our 
philosophy.  If,  then,  in  our  reasonings  con- 
cerning the  possibilities  of  the  creation,  we 
start  from  any  word  less  thoroughly  and  per- 
fectly human  than  the  biblical  word  for  God 
— Love — we  shall  surely  fail  to  understand  the 
nature  and  course  of  things.  If  we  begin  by 
conceiving  of  God  as  the  Supreme  Law,  or 
the  Absolute  Reason,  or  the  Almighty  Will, 
we  shall  not  understand  nature's  truest  speech 
of  God's  glory,  and  we  shall  throw  all  the 
prophetic  voices  of  history  into  confusion ;  for 
we  shall  begin  by  refusing  the  simple  ^'^"ey 
which  God  gives  every  child  to  his  wonderful 
works,  and  by  neglecting  the  one  all-harmoniz- 
incr  word  of  revelation — God  is  love.  In 
thinking,  therefore,  of  the  ways  of  God  which 
meet  in  the  incarnation,  our  all-illumining 
conception  must  be  derived  from  the  purest 
human  experience  of  love.  Whatever  seems 
natural,  or  to  be  expected  in  that  light,  we 
are  justified  in  regarding  as  in  accordance  with 
the  law  of  laws,  and  in  unison  with  the  very 


278  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

heart  of  tlie  nature  of  tilings.  Now,  human 
love — that  charity  which  is  the  bond  of  per- 
fectness — has  in  it  three  essential  elements ; 
there  are  three  primary  colors  in  love's  perfect 
light ;  and  these  three  are,  the  giving  of  self, 
or  benevolence ;  the  putting  self  in  another's 
place,  sympathy,  or  the  vicariousness  of  love  ; 
and  the  assertion  of  the  worth  of  the  gift — 
of  the  self  which  is  given — self-respect,  or  the 
righteousness  of  love.  Under  tlie  conceptions 
of  vicariousness  and  the  assertion  of  its  own 
worth  involved  in  perfect  love,  the  Christian 
doctrines  of  atonement  and  redemj^tion  need  to 
be  regarded ;  and  Avhen  considered  from  any 
lowei*  point  of  view,  as  that  of  law  or  govern- 
ment, the  sacrificial  work  of  Christ  is  hardly 
lifted  out  of  difficulties  and  shadows  into  a  pure 
moral  light.  But  at  present  we  have  to  do 
directly  with  the  (Jocti'ine  of  the  incarnation ; 
and  that  is  seen  in  its  truest  light  when  it  is 
regarded  as  the  final  and  complete  work  of 
the  first  element,  or  energy,  of  God's  love — 
the  giving  of  self  to  the  utmost.  The  unself- 
ish giving  of  self  to  the  utmost  belongs  to  the 
very  essence  of  love,  and  it  is  the  divine  neces- 
sity, therefore,  of  the  incarnation.  The  self- 
imparting  energy  of  love  is  the  first  cause  of 
the  creation.  The  divine  love  must  create,  be- 
cause to  give  of  its  own  being  and  life  is 
of  the  very  nature  of  love.     The   creation  is 


MORAL  NECESSITY  OF  INCARNATION.    279 

tliroiighout,  from  beginning  to  end.  a  giving  of 
self,  a  self-imparting  act,  of  God.  It  is  not 
an  emanation  of  divinity,  for  it  is  a  7)ioral 
work — an  unselfish  giving  of  God,  not  a  mere 
outgoing,  or  exercise,  or  play,  of  the  divine 
Thought  or  Will.  It  is  a  self-impartation  of 
God,  by  which  he  really  gives  of  his  own  life, 
places  something  over  against  himself  with 
which  he  enters  into  relations ;  it  is  a  self -limit- 
ing act  of  God.  We  have,  then,  as  the  nature 
of  things,  as  the  principle  of  all  ]3rinciples  in 
the  creation,  the  divine  law  of  self-giving,  of 
self -imparting  love.  But  if  this  be  the  first 
principle,  the  ultimate  law  of  the  whole  crea- 
tion, where  shall  its  work  stop  ?  At  what 
point  shall  the  divine  energy  of  self-imjDarting 
love  be  satisfied,  and  return  into  itself  ?  When 
shall  its  last  possible  work  be  done  ?  its  final 
word  spoken  ?  What  is  the  highest,  fullest, 
conceivable  self-impartation  of  the  Infinite 
God  ?  Surely  not  an  atom,  or  a  star !  Not 
an  angel,  or  a  human  soul !  Nature,  herself, 
strives  for  something  beyond  our  mortality. 
The  answer  of  the  Bible,  the  answer  of  his- 
tory, is.  The  incarnate  Lord  !  The  Word  made 
fiesh  is  the  utmost  gift  of  God  in  the  creation. 
The  second  Man,  the  Lord  from  heaven,  is  the 
last  conceivable,  perfect,  and  final  self-impai-ta- 
tion  of  God ;  and  if  the  divine  creative  process, 
ever  advancing  to  more  perfect  works,  should 


28o  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

stop  before  He  came  wlio  is  God's  own  image, 
Immanuel,  God  with  us, — then  the  creative 
love  of  God  would  seem  to  fall  short  of  its 
own  purpose  from  the  beginning,  and  fail  of 
its  own  divinity.  The  necessity  of  love  which 
began  the  work  would  not  be  satisfied  to  leave 
it  unfinished  and  uncrowned.  The  creation 
without  its  supreme  end,  the  creation  without 
the  Christ,  would  it  not  be  a  disappointment 
to  God  himself,  for  God  is  love  \ 

If  we  bring  now  this  most  human  and  most 
Christian  conception  of  the  law  of  love  to  the 
interpretation  of  scientific  facts,  and  historical 
events,  all  becomes  plain.  We  behold  revealed 
the  mystery  of  the  ages;  the  first  stepping 
forth  of  a  material  universe  from  the  unseen — 
God's  thought  placed  without  himself,  God's 
idea  given  a  life  of  its  own  from  God ; — then 
the  development  of  that  creation  according  to 
the  divine  ideas  implanted  in  it ;  the  forma- 
tion of  a  habitable  word ;  the  ascent  of  life  ; 
the  typical  forms  reaching  their  perfection  in 
the  coming  of  man ;  the  impartation,  when- 
ever the  creation  was  ready  for  it,  not  only  of 
existence  from  God,  but  also  of  the  gift  of  rea- 
son and  spirit,  God's  own  image ;  the  marvel- 
lous union  of  these  higher  gifts  with  the  lower 
in  man ;  and  then — God  still  imparting  his 
own  spirit  and  life  so  far  and  so  fast  as  the  soil 
of  nature  was  prepared  for  its  reception — the 


MORAL   NECESSITY  OF  INCARNATION.     28 1 

selection  of  a  special  race,  a  divine  training  of 
his  people ;  and,  at  last,  the  crowning  gift,  in 
which  all  others  were  made  complete,  and 
love  finished  its  perfect  work,  the  Incarnation. 
In  his  wonderful  fulness  of  divine  life,  and  in 
his  unique  oneness  with  the  Father,  the  Christ 
stands  amons:  men  as  the  head  of  the  creation : 
and  his  reis^n  is  the  comino^  of  the  eternal 
kingdom  of  God.  From  lower  and  less  human 
points  of  view,  the  God-man  may  seem  con- 
trary to  all  experience  and  his  miraculous  life 
a  thing  inci'edible ;  but  not  from  the  highest 
conception  of  God  as  love.  All  is  changed  in 
that  light.  Bring  to  Paul's  truth — Christ  the 
head  over  all — John's  light  of  the  spirit — God 
so  loved  the  world, —  and  every  thing  unnatural 
or  incredible  disappears  from  the  person  of 
Jesus  Christ.  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that 
he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son  ;  " — if  we  are 
able  to  rise  to  the  height  of  this  biblical  con- 
ception of  the  incarnation,  we  shall  at  once 
find  ourselves  clear  of  shadows  which  seem 
impenetrable  from  lower  and  less  worthy 
ideas  of  the  creation;  and  if  the  truth  re- 
flected in  those  words  of  the  evano-elist  has 
risen  upon  us,  Christ's  presence  and  mission  on 
earth  will  seem  no  more  unnatural  than  the  sun- 
shine in  the  valleys  does  when  the  sun  is  in  the 
sky  above.  Christ  is  on  earth  the  most  perfect 
possible  manifestation  of  what  God  is  in  heaven. 


282  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

Our  reasonings  concerning  the  naturalness 
of  the  fact  of  the  incarnation  when  considered 
as  the  goal  and  manifest  destiny  of  the  cre- 
ation, in  the  light  of  the  highest  moral  concep- 
tions we  can  form  of  the  divine  nature,  are 
not  invalidated  by  any  difficulties  we  may 
have  in  conceiving  of  the  mode  of  the  incarna- 
tion. The  place  of  Jesus  in  nature  and  history 
is  one  thing ;  the  manner  of  his  unique  union 
with  the  Father,  or  the  metaphysics  of  the 
divine-human  consciousness,  is  another  thing. 
The  one  may  be  a  fact  which  we  can  know ; 
while  the  other  may  transcend  reason.  Our 
view,  however,  of  the  naturalness  of  the  incar- 
nation, in  the  larger,  divine  order  of  things, 
may  be  freed  from  needless  difficulty  by  con- 
siderations like  the  following.  If  it  be  said 
that  a  unique  j^erson,  such  as  we  are  obliged 
to  confess  that  Jesus  was,  is  seemingly  contrary 
to  our  own  experience  of  the  possibilities  of 
human  nature,  we  should  remember  that  the 
very  distinction  of  human  nature  is  its  capa- 
city for  God.  The  essential  characteristic, 
and  the  innermost  power  of  human  nature,  are 
its  capacity  to  receive  the  divine  likeness,  and 
its  ability  to  enter  into  communion  with  God. 
Man  is  by  nature  the  son  of  God.  We  know 
not,  therefore,  to  what  largeness  and  perfec- 
tion this  human  capacity  for  God  may  have 
been  brought  in  One  in  whom  our  nature  at- 


THE  PROCESS   OF  INCARNATION.        283 

tains  its  utmost  development,  and  is  bound  in 
final  and  indissoluble  union  with  the  Godhead. 
We  fall  back  not  entirely  upon  our  ignorance, 
but  upon  our  partial  knowledge  of  man's  inner 
relationship  with  the  Father,  and  creation  for 
a  divine  life,  when  we  find  refuge  from  ques- 
tions we  cannot  answer  concerninor  the  incar- 
nate  Son  of  Grod  in  the  old  Lutheran  saying, 
that  the  finite  is  capable  of  the  infinite. 
Morally  and  spiritually,  in  its  innermost  prin- 
ciple and  life,  human  nature  is  more  capable 
of  the  infinite  than  we  may  imagine  in  our 
physical  philosophies.  And  one  other  reflec- 
tion may  come  to  our  aid  here — not  indeed  to 
enable  us  to  understand  the  metaphysics  of  a 
divinely-human  consciousness — but  to  prevent 
us  from  investing  the  personality  of  Jesus 
with  needless  mysteries.  Our  whole  reason- 
ing has  made  us  familiar  with  the  idea  of  pro- 
cesses of  revelation,  and  the  self-manifestation 
of  God  in  nature  and  history.  The  incarnation 
is  relieved  of  some  difiiculties  in  our  concep- 
tion of  it,  if  we  regard  it  in  the  same  manner 
as  a  process — a  growing  union  of  God  and  man 
— begun  indeed  at  the  nativity,  but  finished, 
carried  to  its  last  possible  height,  in  the  glori- 
fied humanity  of  the  ascended  Lord.  The 
mediation  of  a  human  life,  as  well  as  birth, 
would  seem  necessary  to  the  perfect  and  final 
union  of  the  two  natures  in  one  person.     Thus 


284  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

ample  room  is  left  for  tlie  growth  of  the  child 
Jesus,  and  for  his  humanity  to  be  made  per- 
fect ;  while  the  incarnation,  which  was  real  at 
the  beo^innino:,  and  continued  throus^h  his  life 
as  fast  and  so  far  as  the  human  nature  de- 
veloped, is  finally  made  complete  and  glorious 
in  him  who  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Majesty  on  High.  So  we  can  see  in  Jesus, 
amid  his  temptations  and  sore  trials,  our  elder 
brother,  while  he  becomes  more  and  more 
divine  to  those  who  follow  him  to  the  cross ; 
and,  at  last,  after  he  had  risen,  just  before  his 
ascension,  the  very  doubter  can  say :  "  My 
Lord  and  my  God  !  " 

We  do  not  disguise  from  ourselves,  more- 
over, the  fact  that  our  view  of  the  naturalness 
of  the  person  of  Christ,  in  the  creation's  larger 
meanings  and  deepest  purpose,  leads  us  to- 
wards the  further  conclusion  that  the  incarna- 
tion is  not  the  consequence  entirely  of  the  fall 
of  man.  The  idea  of  an  incarnation,  irrespec- 
tive of  sin,  as  the  natural  or  predetermined 
end  of  all  God's  ways  in  the  creation,  seems  to 
go  but  little,  if  any,  beyond  the  Pauline  doc- 
trine of  Christ  as  the  first-born  of  every  crea- 
ture, for  whom  all  things  were  created.  It 
seems  to  be  only  a  philosophic  statement  of 
the  evangelist's  truth,  "  Without  him  was  not 
anything  made  that  was  made."  The  whole 
creation  is  first  for  Christ,  who  is  then  for  the 


INCARNATION  THE  END  OF  CREATION.   285 

whole  world.  Had  there  been  no  human  his- 
tory of  sin,  so,  we  may  suppose,  God's  love 
would  still  have  finished  its  perfect  work,  and 
given  of  itself  to  the  utmost,  in  One  in  whom 
the  creation  itself  is  taken  up  to  the  very 
bosom  of  God ;  only  then  his  advent  would 
not  have  been  in  humiliation  and  shame,  but 
in  glory  and  honor^.  A  gleam  of  light,  at  least, 
is  thus  thrown  over  the  dark  abysmal  question, 
why  did  God  ci'eate  at  all,  if  creating  made 
possible  a  world  of  sin  ?  For  evil  is  only  the 
incident  of  creation ;  it  is  the  passing  mote  in 
the  sunshine,  while  the  lio-ht  is  abidincr.  Sin 
is  but  for  the  day  of  human  history,  while  the 
Son,  the  perfection  of  God's  glory,  is  the 
necessary,  the  eternal  will  of  the  Father.  And 
redemption  is,  thus,  not  an  afterthought  of  the 
Creator,  but  a  possible  work  of  God's  love  pre- 
pared for  in  the  very  nature  of  things  ;  the 
Lamb  is  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world.  The  incarnation  has  absolute  worth 
in  itself,  and  is  for  God's  own  sake  as  well  as 
for  our  sakes.  It  is  not,  in  this  view,  an  acci- 
dental truth  of  history,  but  a  necessary  truth 
of  the  divine  love."^ 


*  This  conception  of  the  necessity  of  an  incarnation  for  the 
completion  of  the  creative  purpose  (the  form  of  it  being  histori- 
cally determined  by  sin  and  the  necessities  of  redemption)  is  an 
idea  which  seems  always  to  have  been  hovering  in  the  atmosphere 
of  Christian  doctrine,  though  it  has  never  been  distinctly  recog- 
nized by  the  creeds  of  the  Church.     For  the  history  of  this  idea 


286  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

The  incarnation,  we  hold,  therefore,  may 
seem  to  us  a  thing  incredible  only  from  the 
narrowness  of  our  horizon  of  thouo^ht,  and 
from  our  failure  to  see  this  central  and  cul- 
minating fact  in  its  place  in  the  divine  order 
and  development  of  the  creation,  in  its  real 
connection  with  tlie  thoughts  and  purposes  of 
the  Eternal.  They  whose  own  spiritual  expe- 
riences have  given  them  other  than  physical 
views,  and  lifted  them  above  the  horizons  of 
the  mere  understanding ;  they  whose  lives 
have  opened  boundless  meanings  in  the  words, 
"  God  so  loved  the  world," — will  pass  with- 
out sense  of  strangeness  to  those  other  words, 
part  and  substance,  as  they  are,  of  the  same 
divine  truth,  "  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten 
Son."  Our  most  speculative  theology,  it  is 
true,  can  only  skirt  the  shores,  and  sound  the 
shallows,  and  measure  the  inlets,  of  that  reve- 
lation of  infinite  fulness,  God  is  love.  But 
even  the  little  which  our  human  hearts  can 
teach  us  of  what  love  is,  and  its  infinite  possi- 
bilities, and  its  great  constraining  law  of  self- 
impartation,  may  cause  a  thousand  perplex- 
ities of  the  understanding^  to  vanish  before  the 


Bee  Dorner,  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Person  of  Christ,  pas- 
sim ;  also,  Ullmann,  Reformatoren  vor  der  Reformation,  ii.,  pp. 
339-401.  This  conception  has  been  again  brought  into  promi- 
nence in  recent  German  theology.  See  especially  Dorner :  opus 
cit.,  II.  Div.,  iii.,  p.  236  if. 


THE  DIVINE   CONSUMMATION.  287 

divine  mystery  of  the  incarnation.  Love's 
revelation  of  the  nature  of  God  makes  the 
voices  of  the  angels,  heralding  the  advent  of 
the  Messiah,  sound  as  welcome  and  as  natural 
to  the  listening  spirit  of  man,  as  do  the  songs 
of  the  birds  at  early  dawn  when  at  last  the 
summer  is  come. 

Let  us  gather  up,  then,  the  threads  of  our 
reasonino^s  thus  far  in  one  conclusion.  We 
have  found  in  the  Bible,  and  the  religion  of 
the  Bible,  a  great  divine  process  of  revelation. 
We  have  marked  by  many  signs,  and  followed 
to  ever  larger  results  of  good,  a  supernat- 
ural development  of  history,  a  more  than  nat- 
ural evolution.  We  have  seen  in  the  midst 
of  the  days  the  great  w^onder  of  histojy.  No 
natural  science  can  declare  the  generation  of 
Jesus  Christ.  But  the  principles  of  scientific 
thought  permit  us  to  believe  in  no  uncaused 
miracle.  If  Jesus  be  the  Christ,  his  coming 
must  be  the  fulfilment  of  a  supernatural 
order,  the  consummation  of  a  divine  course 
of  creation,  the  goal  of  all  development.  '  We 
find  that  there  are  facts  and  laws  of  nature, 
as  well  as  groupings  of  events  in  history,  of 
which  Jesus  Christ  is  the  centre  and  harmony. 
These  growing  Christian  probabilities  of  na- 
ture and  history  become  moral  certainties 
when  we  interpret  them  in  the  light  of  the 
spirit,  and  behold    them  to  be  ideally  true. 


288  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

That  wliicli  in  tlie  last  and  fullest  sense  of  the 
word  is  natural,  is  not  simply  true  to  the 
facts — true,  as  we  sa}^,  to  the  life — but  also 
true  to  the  idea  of  things.  This  ideal  truth 
of  the  creation  we  seek  for  through  our  own 
constitutional  wants,  and  moral  intuitions,  and 
in  the  rev-elations  which  our  human  hearts  re- 
flect of  the  nature  of  God.  Whatever  is  seen 
to  be  in  harmony  with  love  is  natural,  is  true 
to  the  idea,  true  to  the  heart  of  the  nature  of 
things.  It  may  be  supernatural,  but  nothing 
in  unison  with  love  can  be  unlike  God,  can 
be  really,  that  is,  unnatural.  And  in  this 
ideal,  yet  most  real,  view,  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ  seems  to  us  as  natural  as  it  is,  for  love 
to  be  love,  and  for  God  to  be  God. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    UNFINISHED    WORLD,    AND    ITS    COMPLETION. 

He  who  fulfilled  the  past  came  preaching 
the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  His  ad- 
vent ushered  in  a  still  higher  reign  than  the 
age  of  man.  Our  review  of  old  faiths  in  the 
light  of  the  idea  of  development  will  not  be 
complete,  therefore,  until  we  read  the  signs  in 
nature  of  the  ages  to  come,  and  look  forward 
through  the  whole  perspective  of  revelation  to 
the  last  things  of  the  creation.  And  if  we 
shall  find  reasons  for  belie  vino;  that  the  future 
course  of  the  world  shall  carry  on  to  perfec- 
tion the  development  of  the  ci'eation  which  we 
have  observed  up  to  the  coming  of  the  age  of 
Christ,  and  that  there  is  a  continuous  supernat- 
ural evolution  of  the  natural  whose  issue  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven, — then  these  probabilities 
of  the  final  completion  of  the  cosmos  will  con- 
firm our  preceding  reasonings ;  our  argument 
will  be  cumulative  in  its  force ;  the  unity  of 
our  view,  and  the  continuity  of  our  vision, 
wall  assure  us  that  we  have  followed  correctly 
13 


290  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

the  outlines  of  God's  thought,  and  have  not 
mistaken  the  ultimate  desi^rn  of  thino;s. 

The  first  broad  sign  upon  the  very  face  of 
things  of  something  still  to  come,  is  the  mani- 
fest incompleteness  of  the  present  world. 
We  live  broken  lives  in  an  nnfiuished  world. 
Our  earth  in  some  respects,  it  is  true,  is 
already  completed.  Nature  in  some  directions 
seems  to  have  come  to  an  end  of  her  progress. 
As  a  world  fit  for  the  abode  of  human  life  the 
earth  is  finished  and  pronounced  good.  The 
ages  which  consolidated  the  crust  of  the  earth  ; 
laid  uj)  vast  beds  of  coal;  fixed  the  bounds  of 
the  sea;  determined  an  equable  temperature; 
produced  fruit-bearing  trees  ;  made  the  earth 
ready  for  the  grass  and  the  flowers ;  and 
cleared  the  air  of  heavy  vapors  for  the  breath 
of  life,  and  the  songs  of  the  birds  ; — those  crea- 
tive ages  finished  their  work  of  preparation 
when  man  at  last  awoke  in  an  earthly  Para- 
dise. The  world  as  a  stage  for  the  great 
drama  of  human  life,  its  comedy  and  tragedy, 
is  done.  The  human  body,  likewise,  seems  to 
mark  the  end  of  one  long  course  of  nature. 
The  goal  of  a  slow,  toilsome  physical  ascent  is 
reached  in  its  perfection.  Nature  has  made, 
so  far  as  we  can  see,  the  best  use  of  her  best 
materials  in  the  organization  of  the  human 
body.  In  this  direction  the  creative  process 
has  come  to  a  pause  ;  the  earthly  elements,  in 


THE   UNFINISHED    WORLD.  29 1 

their  combinations  within  the  human  brain, 
seem. to  have  been  brought  to  their  last  con- 
ceivable refinement  of  organization.  For  six 
thousand  years — for  we  know  not  how  many 
ages  past — nature  has  been  able  with  all  her 
chemistry  to  show  nothing  higher,  nothing 
more  marvellous,  than  the  human  brain.  It  is 
not  probable  that  nature  can  bring  protoplasm 
up  any  higher  than  the  sentient  organism  of 
man.  Another  step  would  be  a  step  beyond 
existing  nature.  Some  gate,  now  closed,  must 
be  opened  before  organization  can  be  carried 
farther  than  the  present  physical  life  of  man. 

Moreover,  the  arrangements  of  human  soci- 
ety seem  in  some  respects  to  be  completed. 
The  natural  basis  of  friendship  and  love  is 
finished.  We  cannot  conceive,  at  least,  of  any 
better,  or  higher  natural  basis  of  spiritual 
affections  than  the  relationships  of  the  family. 
Any  attempt  to  advance  beyond  the  institu- 
tion of  the  family,  as  the  ground  of  all  social 
organization  and  life,  is  a  reform  against 
nature,  which  falls  back  into  chaos. 

But  while  the  world  in  these  and  other  re- 
spects is  obviously  done,  there  are  still  many 
signs  around  us  that  this  is  an  unfinished 
world.  The  evidences  are  dail}^  pressed  home 
to  our  hearts  of  the  incompleteness  of  the 
present  visible  order  of  existence.  This  world, 
and  human  life  in  this  world,  seem   complete 


292  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

only  as  the  chrysalis  is  complete  ;  this  present 
world-age  is  perfect  only  as  the  preparatory 
form  of  a  liig:lier  existence,  into  wliicli  it  is  to 
pass.  Tluis  the  human  body,  in  which  a 
thousand  types  rise  to  completion,  is  only  a 
temporary  acme,  as  it  were,  of  nature — too 
highly  oi-ganized  to  last  longer  than  a  mo- 
ment. Tlie  type,  indeed,  is  more  permanent, 
but  its  realizations  in  individual  forms  are 
transient.  Nature  breaks  into  life,  but  the 
wave  no  sooner  rises  than  it  falls  ;  our  bodies 
are  but  the  passing  waves  of  nature's  fulness 
of  life,  mere  forms  that  come  and  go  in  end- 
less succession.  And  these  passing  forms  of 
embodiment  are  by  no  means  flexible  to  all 
the  necessities  of  the  spirit  which  is  in  man. 
Though  the  best  that  nature  can  do  appar- 
ently with  existing  materials,  the  body  is  not 
all  that  the  soul  recpiires  for  the  full  exercise 
of  its  own  gro^ving  powers.  Each  sense  seems 
to  have  been  developed  just  far  enough  to 
make  us  wnsh  it  were  bettei- ;  to  suggest  to  us 
the  possibility  of  more  glorious  revelations 
if  we  were  possessed  of  some  finer  sense,  or 
some  higher  organ  of  perception.  The  limita- 
tions of  that  most  marvellous  mechanism,  the 
brain ;  the  frequent  friction  of  the  flesh  and 
the  spirit ;  the  bondage  of  pain, — all  show  the 
incompleteness  of  the  present  physical  basis 
of   mind.      Even    the  very  perfection  of  the 


THE    UNFINISHED    WORLD.  293 

body,  when  considered  as  the  end  of  nature's 
organization  of  existing  elements,  and  com- 
pared with  the  possibilities  of  the  life  of  the 
soul,  compels  us  to  cherish  the  ho[)e  that 
the  process  of  God's  creative  work  is  not 
ended,  its  promise  and  potency  not  exhaust- 
ed in  the  present  visible  system  of  things 
and  our  mortality,  but  that  death  and  the 
resurrection  need  to  be  added  for  its  com- 
pletion. 

Still  other  facts  indicate  the  incompleteness 
of  our  present  moral  and  mental  faculties.  The 
ideal  of  a  human  soul  is  risen  with  Christ,  and 
waits  for  us  in  a  higher  kingdom.  Our  souls 
are  as  yet  only  begun.  Tiie  foundations  of 
moral  being  are  laid  in  intelligence  and  will; 
the  altar  is  raised  in  the  sanctities  of  con- 
science ;  there  seems  also  to  be  in  the  inmost 
soul  a  holy  of  holies,  where  no  image  can  be 
found,  no  representation  or  definite  conception 
of  the  Godhead,  but  where  God  is  felt  to  be 
present,  and  the  divine  Shekinah  is  revealed. 
Nevertheless,  though  the  human  soul  is  the 
very  temple  of  God,  it  is  still  an  unfinished 
temple ; — what  mean  these  broken  purposes, 
shafts  uncrowned  as  yet  with  pei*fect  capital  ? 
whither  spring  these  airy  instincts  to  heights 
unrealized?  to  what  spaciousness  of  reason 
and  loftiness  of  imagination  shall  this  living 
temple  not  be  carried  Ijefore  ever  the  design 


294  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

of  its  Divine  Architect  shall  be  finished  in  the 
})erfection  of  a  soul? 

The  social  economy  of  this  present  world, 
also,  manifests  its  own  incompleteness.  So- 
ciety, human  society,  is  only  begun.  It  is  at 
present  but  in  part.  That  which  is  perfect 
has  not  yet  come.  Its  best  forms  are  typical 
of  better,  in  which  they  shall  pass  in  fulfilment 
away.  Jesus  interpreted  our  human  affec- 
tions, and  the  ties  of  nature,  as  types  and 
prophecies  of  a  higher  order  of  existence,  the 
perfect  society,  in  which  they  shall  be  ful- 
filled ;  for  he  answered  the  Sadducee's  question 
by  the  assertion  that  in  heaven  "  they  neither 
marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage  " — that  which 
is  preparatory  and  natural  falls  of  itself  away ; 
^'  but  they  are  as  the  angels  of  God  in 
heaven" — that  which  is  perfect,  and  the  con- 
servation of  all  that  natural  affection  strove 
to  attain,  shall  be  the  heavenly  state.  The 
lower  and  former  order  of  society,  so  he  seems 
to  teach,  shall  not  return  ;  but  its  real  worth 
shall  be  conserved,  its  treasure  preserved,  in 
the  higher  order  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
Natural  ties  are  as  the  sheath  in  which  the 
grain  ripens;  and  though  the  sheath  be  cast 
away,  the  grain  shall  be  gathered  into  the 
heavenly  garners. 

If,  now,  we  look  more  closely  at  these  evi- 
dences of  an  unfinished  world  and  our  hope 


THE    UNSEEN  COMPLETION,  295 

of  its  completion,  it  will  be  well  to  confine 
our  searcli  to  two  main  questions,  or  leading 
lines  of  examination.  These  two  determina- 
tive questions  it  remains  for  us,  therefore,  to 
follow  out  so  far  as  we  possibly  can,  by  the 
aid  of  whatever  scientific  probabilities  we  may 
gather,  and  in  the  light  of  revelation.  They 
may  be  stated  as  follows :  Are  there  evidences, 
growing  rather  than  diminishing  with  the 
advance  of  knowledge,  that  this  present  visi- 
ble system  of  nature  is  not  the  only  order,  or 
final  form  of  the  creation  ?  and,  secondly,  Are 
there  evidences,  gaining  or  losing  in  force  with 
the  advance  of  science,  that  our  present  em- 
bodiment is  not  our  final  mode  of  existence, 
but  that  it  is  to  be  made  perfect  in  some  pro- 
cess of  resurrection  ? 

The  preceding  chapters,  so  far  as  they  have 
shown  reasons  for  belief  in  a  supernatural 
order  of  creation  and  history  culminating  in 
Christ,  contain  an  answer  to  the  first  of  these 
questions.  But  we  have  to  bring  forward,  at 
this  point,  cumulative  proofs,  and  evidences 
from  other  quarters,  which  we  have  not  yet 
taken  suflicieutly  into  the  account. 

The  authors  of  the  "  Unseen  Universe  " — a 
suggestive  book,  which  sho^vs,  at  least,  how 
the  scientific  imagination  may  look  as  easily 
up  into  the  heavens  as  down  into  the  dust — • 
quote  a  remai'kable  passage  from  Dr.  Young's 


296  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

"  Natural  Philosopliy,"  in  Avhich  he  expresses 
tliis  opinion:  ''Nor  is  there  anything  in  the 
unprejudiced  study  of  physical  philosophy 
that  can  induce  us  to  doubt  the  existence  of 
immaterial  substance ;  on  the  contrary,  we 
see  analo2:ies  that  lead  us  almost  directly  to 
such  an  opinion."  "  We  know  not,"  he  adds, 
"  but  that  thousands  of  spiritual  worlds  may 
exist  unseen  forever  Vjy  human  eyes ;  nor  have 
we  any  reason  to  suppose  that  even  the  pres- 
ence of  matter  in  a  given  spot  necessarily  ex- 
cludes these  existences  from  it."  There  may 
be  worlds  "pervading  each  other,  unseen  and 
unknown,  in  the  same  space ;  and  others  again 
to  which  space  may  not  Vje  a  necessary  mode 
of  existence."  Modern  science  has  verified 
Dr.  Young's  suggestion  of  the  wave-theory  of 
light;  is  it  vei'ifying  his  suggestion,  also,  of 
an  unseen  universe  ?  The  inquiry  leads  along 
hazardous  heights.  It  tempts  to  fascinating, 
but  dangerous  speculations.  Along  the  very 
horizons  of  knowledge  clouds  may  easily  be 
mistaken  for  realities.  But,  without  venturing 
too  far,  we  may  possibly  find  footing  in  positive 
facts,  ^vhere  we  may  look  up  and  gain  larger 
views  of  this  universe  and  its  destinies  than 
the  materialist  has  dreamed  of  in  his  philoso- 
phy. 

Let  us  be  cautious,  however,   at   the  very 
start.     We  should  not  gain  nuich  for  the  hope 


THE    UNSEEN   COMPLETION.  297 

of  immortality  by  admitting  simply  tlie  possi- 
bility of  worlds  within  worlds  of  similar  con- 
stituent elements,  of  more  ethereal  matter  of 
the  same  atomic  constitution.  Nothing  under 
the  laws  of  ordinary  matter,  however  ethereal,, 
can  be  of  itself  immortal,  or  a  permanent 
organization.  Matter  is  a  flowing  stream ; 
only  its  wave-forms  I'emain.  A  spirit,  if 
materialized  of  any  matter  of  which  our  senses 
can  take  cognizance,  would  be  liable  to 
changes  of  temperature  and  dissolution  ;  and 
would  not  necessarily  be  freed  from  the  ills  of 
mortality.  It  would  not  be  unclothed  of  mor- 
tality. To  prove  a  more  ethereal  sphere  of 
existence,  but  still  like  this  material  world  in 
its  physical  constitution,  would  not  prove  the 
existence  of  a  world  where  death  may  not  in- 
vade. Death  reicrns  so  far  as  we  can  see. 
Any  matter  of  molecular  constitution  is  sub- 
ject to  dissolution.  But  Dr.  Young's  sugges- 
tion may  be  put  in  a  different  way.  It  is  con- 
ceivable that  there  may  be  a  sphere  of  life,  an 
order  of  existence,  still  material  as  distinct 
from  the  purely  spiritual,  and  yet  possessed 
of  some  specific  property  which  distinguishes 
it  from  the  matter  of  atomic  constitution,  of 
which  our  senses  alone  can  take  cognizance ; 
there  may  be  supersensible,  yet  not  purely  im- 
material existences.  Certain  phenomena  of 
the  visible  universe  suggest  the  supposition  of 
13* 


298  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

an  unseen  universe  related  to  the  present,  yet 
of  a  different  kind  or  order,  out  of  whicli 
came  the  things  which  appear,  and  into  which 
they  shall  be  dissolved,  enriching  it  as  they 
pass  into  it — the  new  heavens  and  the  new 
earth  of  revelation.  Certain  phenomena,  I 
say,  suggest  and  lend  probability  to  the  sup- 
position that  there  is  a  larger,  better  half  of 
the  universe  than  as  yet  appears  ;  they  do  not, 
however,  demonstrate  its  existence,  for  physi- 
cal science  never  can  pi'ove  the  supersensible. 
One  species  or  type  of  existence,  if  taken  by 
itself,  does  not  furnish  the  positive  proof  that 
another  species  has  existed  before  it,  or  that  a 
higher  type  is  to  come  after  it ;  although  the 
embryology,  the  growth,  and  the  peculiarities 
of  a  particular  species  when  matured,  may 
suggest  to  the  scientific  eye  the  previous  exist- 
ence of  lower  forms  of  life,  and  be  a  prophecy, 
also,  of  higher  types  to  follow.  We  know 
that  this  is  true  with  regard  to  the  typical 
forms  up  to  man,  for  we  now  have  the  record 
of  the  succession  of  species  open  before  us. 
But  if  we  should  take  any  type  by  itself,  and 
I'eason  from  it  alone,  we  should  not  have  a 
positive  science,  but  only  rational  conjecture 
and  hope  of  wliat  must  have  gone  before,  and 
micrht  come  after  it.  Similarly  we  have  made 
known  to  us  in  this  material  universe  only  one 
general  form  or  type  of  what  may  be  a  vast 


SPIRITUAL   ENERGY  IN  FAITH.  299 

evolation,  and  we  cannot  prove  absolutely 
from  a  single  form  of  creation — the  only  one 
known  to  us — what  was  before  it,  or  what 
new  and  higher  orders  of  existence  may  have 
dominion  after  this  world-ao:e  shall  be  over. 
We  may  find,  however,  in  its  structure  and  de- 
velopment, reasons  enough  for  a  rational  be- 
lief and  expectation  of  something  still  human, 
but  diviner,  to  come.  We  possess,  moreover, 
in  our  own  spiritual  consciousness  an  energy, 
as  positive  as  any  material  force,  by  means  of 
which  the  natural  probabilities  of  things  may 
be  converted  into  living,  working  faiths. 
Faith,  indeed,  is  the  act  which  brings  to  the 
suggestions  of  nature,  and  the  probabilities  of 
the  understanding,  the  affirmative  power  of 
the  spirit  within  man.  Faith  is  the  spirit 
within  us,  saying,  "It  is,"  to  the  reason's  inti- 
mations of  immortality.  Faith  is  thus  a 
rational  act ;  yet,  at  the  same  time,  it  is  more 
than  reasoning,  for  it  is  the  act  of  the  soul 
affirming  itself ;  it  is  the  positive  exercise  of 
our  inner  spiritual  energy  in  the  conversion  of 
the  suggestions  of  the  senses,  or  the  probabili- 
ties of  the  understanding,  into  the  beliefs  by 
which  we  live  and  die.  But  this  spiritual 
energy  may  differ  in  different  persons ;  this 
self-affirmative  force  of  the  soul  may  vary 
widely  with  opposite  temperaments  ;  it  may 
have  been  developed  or  repressed  by  lifelong 


300  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

habits,  or  education.  Soul-en ei'gy  may  be  left 
latent  for  years,  or  it  may  be  developed  by 
exercise.  We  can  bring  forward,  therefore, 
the  arguments  for  our  belief ;  but  something 
besides  reasoning  is  necessary  to  produce 
faith.  Our  reasonings  as  to  the  unseen  uni- 
verse may  be  cumulative  in  their  force ;  but 
faith  in  immortality  and  heaven  requires  of 
every  soul  the  exercise  upon  the  arguments,  in 
view  of  the  evidences,  of  its  own  spiritual 
energy  and  power. 

With  these  preliminary  cautions  we  address 
ourselves  to  the  present  state  of  the  evidence 
for  belief  in  some  supersensible  order  of  ex- 
istence, or  the  unseen  universe.* 

1.  It  becomes  more  probable,  as  our  knowl- 
edge of  physics  deepens,  that  the  present 
visible  universe  had  its  origin  from  a  dif- 
ferent order  of  things.  Science  has  pressed 
nature  to  yield  the  secret  of  matter  until  the 
last  hiding-place  of  the  molecule  is  no  larger 
than  the  one-five-hundred-millionth  of  an 
inch.  And  theory  goes  closer  still  to  the  ulti- 
mate nature  of  matter.  There  are  some  ob- 
served peculiarities  of  the  conduct  of  the  in- 
finitesimal atoms   from   which   the   scientific 


*  In  some  of  the  reasonings  which  follow  I  would  acknowledge 
again  my  indebtedness  to  Profs,  Htewart  and  Tait,  though  their 
conception  of  the  "Unseen  Universe"  seems  to  me  to  need 
some  modification. 


TEMPORAL   ORIGIN  OF  THE  WORLD.     3^1 

imagination  proceeds  to  form  a  theory  of  their 
nature  and  origin.  These  infinitesimals  of 
which  the  worlds  are  made  were  compared 
by  Sir  John  Herschel  to  manufactured  arti- 
cles on  account  of  their  uniformity.  The 
fact,  that  is,  that  certain  things  exist  in  great 
numbers,  and  all  in  equal  quantities,  or  in 
exact  and  constant  ratios,  would  indicate  that 
they  were  manufactured  ;  as  the  regularity  in 
size  of  the  pins  in  a  paper,  for  example,  shows 
that  they  have  been  made.  Prof.  Maxwell, 
following  out  Herschel's  reasoning,  concludes 
that  ''  the  formation  of  the  molecule  is,  there- 
fore, an  event  not  belono-ino:  to  the  order  of 
nature  in  which  we  live."  *  The  very  atoms, 
then,  so  we  are  assured  by  high  scientific 
authority,  come  from  beyond  the  limits  of 
what  we  call  nature,  and  have  their  origin  in 
some  other  and  older  element.  At  this  point 
theory  takes  up  the  facts,  and  suggests  a  pos- 
sible conception  of  that  other,  more  ancient 
state  from  which  the  present  constitution  of 
the  world  was  received.  Sir  Wm.  Thomson, 
availing  himself  of  Helmholtz's  researches  into 
the  nature  of  a  perfect  fluid,  supposes  that 
each  atom  is  a  vortex-rino:.  It  is  a  rino;  formed 
by  motion  in  some  pre-existing  perfect  fluid. 
This  ingenious  theory   accounts  for  much. 


*  See  Article  Atom,  Enc.  Brit. 


302  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

and  is  perhaps  contradicted  by  nothing.  But 
our  concern  with  it  now  is  simply  this,  that 
the  latest  and  most  plausible  scientific  specula- 
tion as  to  the  ultimate  constitution  of  matter, 
and  the  nature  of  the  law  of  gravitation,  only 
C(Mifirms  the  impression  which  common  people 
find  left  upon  the  very  face  of  things,  that  the 
world  is  made  ;  that  the  creation,  at  least  in 
the  form  in  which  we  now  have  it,  has  not 
existed  ahvays,  but  has  come  forth  from  some- 
thing different  from  itself ;  that  this  terres- 
trial system,  therefore,  is  but  a  part,  the  pres- 
ent, visible  part  of  the  whole  work  of  God. 
One  conclusion  towards  which  physical  science 
in  its  quest  for  the  origin  of  things,  in  its  re- 
searches into  the  ultimate  constitution  of  mat- 
ter, is  borne  with  increasing  probability,  ac- 
cording to  Profs.  Stewart  and  Tait,  is  this  : 
"  The  visible  universe  cannot  comprehend  the 
whole  works  of  God.  .  .  .  Perhaps,  indeed, 
it  forms  only  an  infinitesimal  portion  of  that 
stupendous  whole  which  is  alone  entitled  to 
be  called  the  universe."  * 

2.  Another  sui^orestion  of  an  unseen  uni- 
verse  different  from  the  present  material 
system,  yet  not  without  some  relation  to  it, 
arises  from  the  apparent  waste  in  the  present 
economy  of  things.     We  do  not  refer  simply 


*  Unseen  Universe,  p.  66,  1st  Edition. 


APPARENT   WASTE    OF  NATURE.         303 

to  the  apparent  waste  of  moral  and  spiritual 
forces,  from  which  we  reason  instinctively  to 
the  existence  of  some  higher  realm  of  being, 
in  which  the  earthly  loss  is  made  heavenly 
gain  ;  but  also  we  refer  to  the  difficulty  which 
scientiiic  men  meet  in  thinking  out  their  lead- 
ing principle  of  the  conservation  of  energy, 
to  avoid  which  some  of  them  are  inclined 
to  open  a  speculation  concerning  the  existence 
of  another  medium,  or  mode,  of  existence,  dif- 
ferent from  ordinary  matter,  yet  sustaining 
some  relation  to  this  material  system.  Y/e 
shall  consider  presently  whether  chemical 
changes  are  sufficient  to  account  for  all  the 
energy  which  disappears  at  death.  Life,  at 
least,  is  not  a  reversible  process,  and  we  have 
no  mechanical  equivalent  for  it — it  goes  out, 
but  into  what  does  it  go  ?  But,  besides  that, 
there  are  other  losses  of  energy  to  be  made 
good.  The  w^aste  of  the  forces  of  the  solar 
system  nonplusses  our  science  of  the  conser- 
vation of  energy,  unless  it  calls  to  its  aid  an 
hypothesis  which,  to  say  the  least,  introduces 
the  conception  of  something  very  different 
from  the  kind  of  matter  which  manifests  itself 
to  the  senses.  "  That  the  great  machine  for 
the  dissipation  of  energy,"  remarks  Principal 
Dawson,  "^  *'  in  which  we  exist  and  which  we 


*  Origin  of  the  World,  p.  11. 


304  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

call  the  universe,  must  have  a  correlative  and 
complement  in  the  unseen,  is  a  conclusion  now 
forced  upon  physicists  by  the  necessities  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  conservation  of  force.  In 
short,  it  seems  that,  unless  we  admit  this  con- 
clusion, we  cannot  believe  in  the  possible  exist- 
ence of  the  material  universe  itself,  and  must 
sink  into  nihilism."  The  sun  is  daily  squander- 
ing his  resources  of  light  and  heat  in  space, 
and  at  his  present  prodigal  rate  will  even- 
tually become  a  bankrupt.  What  becomes  of 
all  but  a  tithe  of  this  waste  of  his  substance 
we  do  not  know.  It  is  supposed,  also,  that 
the  ethereal  something  absorbs  a  certain  por- 
tion of  the  starlight.  But  to  what  fui'ther 
uses,  through  that  mysterious  ethereal  me- 
dium, are  the  absorbed  radiant  energies  of  the 
sidereal  system  put  ?  Science  forbids  us  to 
suppose  that  they  can  be  lost ;  not  a  solitary 
wanderinfy  sunbeam  can  be  lost  out  of  exist- 
ence  in  empty  space.  The  ether  conserves, 
or  something  transfers,  and  puts  to  some  far- 
ther use,  everything  apparently  wasted  by  our 
slowly  dissolving  system  of  worlds.  All  will 
be  born  ao-ain  in  some  future  evolution.  It  is 
not  surprising,  therefore,  tliat  ti'ained  and 
eminent  scientists  are  constrained  to  hazard 
the  conjecture  that  tlie  etlier — tliat  unknown 
yet  everywhere  present  sometliing — may  be 
the  connecting  link,  the  vibrating  medium,  be- 


APPARENT   WASTE    OF  NATURE,         305 

tween  our  present  system  and  some  other  as 
yet  unrevealed  mode  or  order  of  existence."^ 
If,  however,  with  Clerk-Maxwell,  we  are  dis- 
posed to  regard  their  suggestion  of  possible 
remoter  uses  of  the  ethereal  medium  as  "  far 
transcending  the  limits  of  physical  specula- 
tion," we  have,  at  any  rate,  in  the  very  exist- 
ence of  the  ether  an  intimation  to  the  senses 
of  the  possibility  of  other  forms  of  material 
existence  than  the  kind  of  matter  with  which 
we  are  conversant.  If  physical  science  is 
compelled  to  admit  the  presence  of  matter 
which  is  not  molecular ;  if  what  Maxwell  calls 
the  largest  body  we  know  is  unlike  anything 
we  know,  homogeneous,  continuous,  incouceiv- 
able,f  surely  natural  science  is  estopped 
from  gainsaying  any  suggestions,  or  intima- 
tions, which  may  come  to  us  from  any  quarter, 
of  super-physical  modes  or  spheres  of  exist- 
ence. 

But,  not  to  insist  further  upon  these  scientif- 
ic speculations,  we  take  up  another  applica- 
tion of  the  principle  of  the  conservation  of 
energy  which  seems  legitimately  and  neces- 
sarily to  lead  us  out  again  to  the  conception 
of  a  larger  outlying  universe  in  which  the 
things  that  are  seen  have  their  existence.  The 
scientific   basis  of  this  conclusion  is  thus  suc- 


*  Unseen  Universe,  p.  158. 
f  See  Article  Atom,  Enc.  Brit. 


3o6  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

cinctly  stated  by  Prof.  Le  Conte  :  *  "  Evi- 
dently, therefore,  in  the  universe,  taken  as  a 
whole,  evolution  of  one  part  must  be  at 
the  expense  of  some  other  part.  The  evolu- 
tion or  development  of  the  whole  cosmos — of 
the  whole  universe  of  matter — as  a  unit,  by 
forces  within  itself,  according  to  the  doctrine 
of  the  conservation  of  force,  is  inconceivable. 
If  there  be  any  such  evolution  at  all  compara- 
ble with  any  known  form  of  evolution,  it  can 
only  take  place  by  a  constant  increase  of  the 
whole  sum  of  energy,  i.  <?.,  by  a  constant  influx 
of  divine  energy,  for  the  same  quantity  of 
matter  in  a  higher  condition  must  embody  a 
greater  amount  of  energy."  So  far,  then,  as 
we  have  reason  for  believino;  that  evolution  is 
not  an  everlasting  see-saw  ;  so  far  as  we  are 
warranted  in  cherishing  faith  in  a  law  of  prog- 
ress working  out  ever  larger  good,  we  are 
compelled  scientifically  to  suppose  the  influx 
of  higher  energies  into  this  material  part  of 
the  cosmos.  If  there  is  going  on  a  really  pro- 
gressive development  of  the  creation ;  if  the 
last  state  of  nature  is  to  be  better  than  her 
first — then  we  must  suppo>ie  that  influences 
above  nature,  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come, 
do  work  within  nature,  and  are  hastening  the 
coming  of  the   day  Avhen  foimer  things  shall 


♦  Int.  Scien.  Series,  Cons   of  Energy,  p.  199. 


PROGRESS   OF    THE    WHOLE.  307 

pass  away,  and  that  whicli  remains  shall  be 
more  glorious.  But  this  higher  energy,  which 
is  bearing  nature  on  to  diviner  issues,  we  may 
either  conceive  of  as  the  direct  action  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  upon  this  material  S3'Stem,  or 
we  may  suppose,  also,  that  spiritual  and  divine 
forces  work  down  upon  the  natural  through 
some  subtler  medium,  through  the  orderly  pro- 
cesses and  laws  of  some  spiritual  realm,  which 
was  created  in  such  relations  to  this  present 
visible  w^orld,  as  to  permit  action  and  reaction 
between  the  two.  Prof.  Tait  says  that  the  ul- 
timate structure  of.  matter  should  be  consid- 
ered "  as  a  cage  ; ''  it  is  open  as  wicker-work ; 
the  molecule  is  not  a  close  corporation. 
This  material  system  in  the  midst  of  a  larger 
spiritual  universe  may  be  conceived  of  as  like 
a  veil  floating  in  the  air,  taking  the  motions  of 
its  currents,  revealing  in  the  very  wavings  of 
its  folds  the  breath  of  the  breeze  upon  it ;  yet 
not  a  film  of  it  broken,  its  texture  nowhere 
torn,  by  the  invisible  element  all  the  while 
playing  in  and  out  among  its  many  threads. 
But,  whatever  may  be  the  mode  of  the  influx 
of  energies  from  without,  our  present  point  is, 
that  scientifically  Ave  must  suppose  something 
without  and  above  nature,  if  we  believe  in  a 
really  progressive  evolution,  and  expect  that 
the  end  of  God's  ways  in  the  creation  shall  be 
more  glorious  than  the  beginning. 


J 


08  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 


3.  Additional  evidence  in  favor  of  the  view 
that  the  visible  worlds  constitute  only  a  part 
of  the  whole  universe  is  derived  from  the 
probable  destiny  of  the  present  material  sys- 
tem. It  is  now  the  prophecy  of  science  that 
tlie  creation,  in  its  present  form,  is  not  ever- 
lastinor.  La  Place's  famous  demonstration  of 
the  stability  of  the  solar  system,  even  if  free 
from  mathematical  errors,  ignores  entirely  the 
physical  instability  of  the  sun  and  the  planets. 
►Slowly,  yet  surely,  our  system  is  losing  its 
energy ;  it  has  passed  its  spring-time  of 
growth ;  it  is  fully  foi-med  ;  its  natural  force 
is  abating;  the  end,  so  Herbert  Spencer  says, 
is  universal  death. ^'  Heat,  which  has  been 
called  the  great  communist,  is  expected  at  last 
to  reduce  all  things  to  a  dead  and  motionless 
uniformity.  In  available  energy,  at  least,  our 
physicists  are  quite  at  one  in  su2:)posing  the 
present  universe  shall  come  to  an  end.  The 
indestructibility  of  the  matter  of  our  system 
cannot  be  proved,  and  if  we  suppose  that  the 
pre-existing  fluid,  fi*om  which  Sir  Wm.  Thonv 
son  derives  the  atoms,  is  not  in  every  respect  a 
perfect  fluid,  then  the  very  atoms  must  at  last 
vanish  away.  The  universe,  it  is  predicted,  f 
"  shall  bury  its  dead  out  of  sight."    This  whole 


*  First  Principles,  p.  473. 
f  Unseen  Universe,  p.  119. 


END    OF    THE    VISIBLE    CREATION.       3^9 

system  of  worlds  has  been  conceived  of  as 
like  a  ring  of  siuoke,"^  or  a  wreath  of  cloud, 
which  one  moment  is  developed  out  of  the 
viewless  air,  and  another  moment  disappears 
aeain  into  the  invisible  element  from  which  it 
came.  As  the  atmosphere  holds  the  clouds 
which  come  and  go,  so  the  larger  universe  con- 
tains the  finite  and  passing  worlds  ;  the  things 
which  are  unseen  are  before  and  after  the 
things  which  are  seen,  for  they  are  eternal. 
Tliis  world-age,  the  present  creation,  is  as  a 
vapor  that  passeth  away. 

We  approach  another  still  more  mysterious 
indication  of  a  realm  of  supersensible  force, 
related  to  this  present  system,  yet  not  identical 
with  it.  I  refer  to  the  phenomena  of  life.  lu 
considering  (so  far  as  our  argument  requires) 
this  greatly  vexed  and  still  undetermined 
question,  with  regard  to  which  scientific 
authorities  are  by  no  means  agreed,  we  need, 
at  the  outset,  to  distinguish  carefully  things 
that  differ,  and  throuirhout  to  discriminate 
between  the  results  of  scientific  observation, 
and  the  afiirmations  of  our  reason  when  we 
take  up  those  results  in  our  whole  thinking. 
We  begin,  then,  with  the  generally  admitted 
facts. 

These  are  (1)  certain  peculiar  phenomena 


*  Unseen  Universe,  118. 


3IO  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

of  vitality.  Minute  particles  of  apparently 
structureless  matter  move,  we  know  not  why, 
and  reproduce  themselves,  we  cannot  tell  how  ; 
mysteriously  transform  nutritive  matter  into 
new  combinations,  build  up  the  most  diversi- 
fied structures,  and  show,  in  short,  the  great 
marvel  of  growth.  The  peculiar  phenomena 
manifest  in  living  cells  and  their  products, 
constitute  a  specific  science.  (2)  The  correla- 
tion of  vital  energy  with  other  forces  is  ad- 
mitted on  all  hands.  The  most  pronounced 
believer  in  vital  force  does  not  deny  that  life 
is  bound  up  with  physical  and  chemical  forces. 
It  enters  with  its  energy,  according  to  his  be- 
lief, to  do  sj^ecial  work  in  the  established  sys- 
tem of  things.  We  can  detect,  and  can  admit, 
no  break  between  the  chemistry  and  the  vital- 
ity of  a  living  cell.  (3)  The  analogy  of  the 
physical  sciences  might  lead  us  to  suppose  that 
life,  also,  is  a  force  to  be  placed  in  the  same 
order  or  category  as  light,  or  electricity,  or 
any  chemical  force. 

But  (4)  it  is  generally  admitted  that  no  ex- 
periments hav^e  enabled  us  positively  to  put 
all  vital  phenomena  into  this  general  category 
of  physical  or  chemical  phenomena.  Chemical 
combinations  of  a  high  degree  of  complexity 
form  the  material  Avhich  manifests  vitality ; 
and  physical  changes  are  observed  to  take 
place  in  the  formation  of    living  cells.      But 


SIGNIFICANCE   OF  LIFE.  3II 

the  chemical  synthesis  for  life  certainly  has 
not  been  discovered.  Mr.  Lewes  replies  to 
Dr.  BeaFs  assertion  of  vital  force,  that  it  is 
not  scientific  to  base  a  positive  conclusion 
upon  our  ignorance,  and  that  the  special  syn- 
thesis of  the  inorganic  elements  in  the  living 
cell  may  yet  be  discovered.  That  we  must 
grant,  Mr.  Lewes,  is  possible  ;  but  we  certainly 
have  as  yet  no  physical  explanation  of  the 
mystery  of  life,  and  (5)  the  advance  of  science 
renders  it  less,  rather  than  more,  probable  that 
we  ever  can  find  one.  Some  scientists  antici- 
pate, it  is  true,  the  final  resolution  of  life  into 
its  chemical  equivalents,  but  science,  with  all 
its  subtle  researches,  is  still  no  nearer  the  se- 
cret of  life  than  is  the  child  who  wonders  what 
made  the  flower  grow  which  he  holds  in  his 
hand.  There  are  certain  residual  phenomena 
of  life  which  defy  analysis,  elude  the  micro- 
scope, and  are  utterly  beyond  our  chemistry. 
We  cannot  so  arrans^e  the  inoro^anic  elements, 
under  any  known  conditions,  that  life  shall 
spring  up,  and  manifest  its  peculiar  energy, 
according  to  laws  capable  of  demonstration ; 
as,  for  example,  we  may  set  existing  forces  at 
work  in  producing  crystals.  The  origin  of 
life  is  beyond  all  science ;  as  Lotze,  who  has 
argued  with  great  acumen  against  the  suppo- 
sition of  a  special  vital  force,  admits :  *'  Only 
its  presei'v.ition,"  he  says,  "  do  we  believe  is 


312  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

committed  to  the  connection  of  tlie  course  of 
nature  without  the  interposition  of  new  pow- 
ers.*" *  Continued  and  determined  assaults 
have  not  succeeded  in  breaking  down  the  law 
that  life  always  comes  from  life.  We  are  com- 
pelled, then,  to  look  away  from  this  earth  for 
the  origin  of  it ;  for  the  elements  of  which 
this  world  is  formed  were  once  in  conditions 
which  precluded  the  existence  of  any  germs 
of  life  like  that  with  which  the  earth  now 
teems.  Unless,  therefore,  we  suppose  that  in 
some  distant  age  the  earth  possessed  powers 
of  germination  unlike  any  observable  under 
the  present  system  of  nature  (and  this  suppo- 
sition itself  assumes  the  extra-physical,  if  not 
the  supernatural),  we  are  obliged  to  seek  else- 
where for  the  source  of  life.  Accordingly, 
very  much  as  theologians  have  sometimes 
attempted  to  account  for  the  origin  of  evil  by 
pushing  the  difficulty  back  into  some  preex- 
isting^  world,  so  scientists  have  suGrcrested  that 
some  primordial  germ  of  life  may  have  been 
wafted  from  other  worlds  to  the  fruitful  soil 
of  this  earth.  But  this  gratuitous  supposition 
only  transfers  the  problem  of  life  to  other 
worlds ;  it  brings  us  no  nearer  the  solution  of 
its  mystery.  Whence  came  that  primordial 
germ?     Nothing  from  all  known  causes  can 


*  Mikrokoamus,  i.,  s.  83. 


SIGNIFICANCE   OF  LIFE.  313 

rise  up  and  say,  "  I  am  the  father  of  life ! " 
Follow  that  germ  back  from  planet  to  planet, 
away  from  star  to  star,  and  still  each  orb  in 
turn  must  answer,  "  I  am  but  as  the  common 
earth  ;  I  hold  not  the  secret  of  life  !  "  Trace 
life  to  the  outmost  limits  of  this  material  sys- 
tem, down  to  the  last  centre  of  the  least  living 
cell,  and  still  we  find  it  to  be  without  father, 
or  mother,  or  beginning  of  days. 

Equally  impossible  is  it  for  us  to  follow  life 
through  the  changes  which  occur  at  death. 
The  end,  as  the  beginning,  of  life  passes  knowl- 
edge. The  changes  in  the  body  which  mani- 
fest themselves  to  our  senses  are  physical 
changes  which  result  from  death.  "  What  is 
it  that  is  gone,"  asks  Prof.  Le  Conte,*  "and 
whither  is  it  gone  ?  There  is  something  here 
which  science  cannot  yet  understand,"  The 
process  of  life  is  not  a  reversible  one  ;  we  can- 
not, that  is,  transfer  its  energy  backwards  and 
forwards,  as  we  can  heat  or  electricity,  from 
one  form  of  force  to  another.  In  this  respect 
there  is  somethino^  in  life  which  takes  it  out 
of  any  known  correlation  of  forces. 

What  conclusion,  then,  are  we  warranted  in 
drawing  from  the  distinctive  facts  of  vital 
phenomena?  We  infer.  Dr.  Beale  and  the 
vitalists  would   say,  a  special  vital    force  as 


*  Conservation  of  Energy,  p.  201. 
U 


SM  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

their  cause.  But  we  should  gain  little,  if 
anything,  for  a  spiritual  philosophy  by  that 
inference,  and  we  transcend  the  limits  of  posi- 
tive science,  at  least,  when  we  draw  it.  For, 
if  there  is  a  special  vital  force,  it  must  either 
be  a  supersensible  or  extra-physical  force — in 
which  case  it  cannot  be  a  matter  of  scientific 
determination- — or  else  it  must  be  a  peculiar, 
as  yet  undiscovered,  physical  force,  in  which 
case  it  would  prove  nothing  for  the  believer 
in  spirit.  So  far  as  it  can  be  observed,  life  is 
a  physical  process,  and  belongs  to  the  present 
world.  Spiritualists  have  no  reason  or  right 
to  dispute  biologists  who  treat  vital  phe- 
nomena as  they  do  all  other  phenomena, 
which  can  come  within  the  field  of  their 
science,  as  belonging  to  the  present  world,  as 
facts  of  the  present  system  of  nature.  Spirit- 
ual philosophy  has  really  no  more  to  do  with 
the  question  as  to  a  special  vital  force,  or 
with  the  physical  definition  of  life,  than  it  has 
to  do  with  the  pro2:)erties  of  magnetism,  or 
any  other  force  capable  of  demonstrating  it- 
self to  the  senses. 

What,  then,  is  the  real,  undeniable,  spirit- 
ual significance  of  life  ?  We  find  the  evidence 
of  something  supersensible  in  life,  not  when  we 
look  merely  at  vital  movements  through  the 
microsco]:)e,  but  when  we  view  the  mystery  of 
life  in  the  world  without  us,  through  our  own 


SIGNIFICANCE   OF  LIFE.  3^5 

consciousness  of  life,  and  seek  for  a  rational 
interpretation  of  its  phenomena.  The  final 
judgment  as  to  what  life  means,  is  to  be  deter- 
mined in  a  hio^her  court  than  that  of  l)ioloi2:ical 
science."^  There  are  residual  facts,  and  ad- 
mitted peculiarities  of  life,  which  biology  can- 
not explain,  which  wT)nld  remain  after  any 
supposable  chemical  analysis  of  vitality,  which, 
in  the  light  of  our  own  spiritual  consciousness, 
are  sui^a'estive  of  somethino;  more  than  the 
eye  can  see  in  them,  and  which  render  belief 
in  the  oris^in  of  life  from  without  and  above 
nature  a  rational  faith.  And  this  evidence 
for  the  unseen,  or  the  spiritual  significance  of 
life,  remains  much  the  same,  whether  we  look 
upon  life  broadly,  as  it  is  manifest  to  the  un- 
taught eye  in  nature,  or  whether  we  pursue  it 
into  the  living  centre  of  a  microscopical  cell. 


*  The  phenomena  of  life  belong-  to  physical  science  ;  the 
question  as  to  the  cause  of  life,  or  the  interpretation  of  the  phe- 
nomena of  life,  is  a  problem  of  metaphysics.  Thus  it  is  notice- 
able that  our  biologists,  while  agreeing  substantially  as  to  the 
phenomena  of  life,  cannot  unite  in  any  definition  of  life.  Is  not 
the  reason  simply  this,  that  the  definition  of  life  involves  ideas 
of  nature,  and  cause,  and  end,  or  a  philosophy  of  life — which 
they  would  exclude  from  the  science  of  biology  ?  That  science 
can  only  describe  vital  phenomena  and  their  correlations ;  but  to 
define  life — to  say  what  it  is  and  means — is  to  go  beyond  physics, 
and  to  seek  for  a  metaphysical  conception  of  it.  "  It  is  impossi- 
ble to  adequately  define  life  without  taking-  into  our  definition 
the  idea  of  '  an  end '  in  the  orderly  changes  which  it  presents," — 
a  just  criticism  on  attempted  definitions  of  life  by  Mivart,  Con. 
Rev.,  1879,  p.  707. 


3l6  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

There  is  no  argument  which  a  spiritual  philos- 
ophy may  draw  legitimately  from  the  great 
wonderful  fact  of  life  on  earth,  which  may  not 
be  as  well  drawn  wherever  science  may  be  com- 
pelled to  close  the  microscope,  and  give  up  her 
search  for  its  ultimate  chemical  corj-elations. 
For  it  is  not  merely  the  so-called  vital  phe- 
nomena themselves  which  determine  the  spirit- 
ual inference  from  the  existence  of  life,  but 
rather  that  which  we  do  not  see  in  the  move- 
ments of  living  matter — that  which  is  more 
than  physical  in  them — their  predetermined 
collocation,  their  intelligent  combination,  the 
manner  in  which  physical  machinery  is  worked 
for  the  special  designs  of  life.  The  nature 
and  combinations  of  the  forces  employed, 
science  may  determine  if  she  can ;  the  direo- 
tioii  of  the  forces  is  our  problem.  Common 
forces,  if  you  please,  ai-e  here  combined  and 
worked  for  uncommon  ends.  Elemental  powers, 
if  you  will  call  them  so,  are  here  bound  under 
a  special  law  which  determines  the  descent  of 
life.  Physical  energies — if  such  they  prove — 
are  here  grasped  by  some  higher  law,  which 
compels  them  to  fashion  out  of  ordinary  mate- 
rials extraordinary  products — each  product, 
too,  according  to  its  own  type  or  design.  There 
must  be  something  without  the  machine  which 
so  arranges  its  shuttles,  and  orders  its  mo- 
tionSj  as  to  produce  out  of  similar  materials 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF  LIFE.  Z^7 

the  most  variegated  designs,  each  perfect  after 
its  kind.  In  this  intelligent  co-ordination,  in 
this  unity  of  operations  according  to  one  and 
the  self-same  spirit,  lies  the  real  mystery  of 
life  and  its  extra-physical  significance.*  Keve- 
lation  does  not  close  the  microscope  at  any 
fraction  of  the  inch,  and  say,  "That  last  visi- 
ble movement  of  a  dot  of  matter  is  the  action 
of  an  extra-physical  force ! "  But  Moses 
made  no  mistake  when  he  taught  that  God 
was  the  author  of  life ;  for  all  the  researches 
of  science  do  not  yield  any  material  explana- 
tion of  it,  and  leave  uncontradicted  our 
rational  and  spiritual  understanding  of  its 
origin,  meaning,  and  destiny.  Biology  makes 
more  and  more  probable  the  inability  of  the 
senses  to  deny  the  evidence  of  the  spirit  with- 
in man ;  but  the  final  interpretation  of  nature 
must  ahvays  come  from  within  our  owm  self- 
consciousness.  To  the  brain  of  a  dog,  nature 
nowhere  could  be  suggestive  of  spiritual 
reality.     If  dogs  reason  at  all,  they  must  of 

*  In  an  address  before  the  British  Association,  which  I  have 
read  since  the  above  was  in  type,  Professor  Altman  argues  that 
"  life  is  a  property  of  protoplasm,"  and  that  there  must  be  "  much 
complexity  "  hidden  deep  within  the  molecular  constitution  of 
protoplasm;  "while  in  all  this,"  he  says,  "there  must  bean 
adaptiveness  to  purpose  as  great  as  any  claimed  for  the  most  com- 
plicated organism."  So,  in  the  view  taken  above,  the  hidden 
molecular  constitution  of  the  matter  of  life  is  regarded  as  a 
proper  problem  of  science  ;  but  the  ' '  adaptiveness  to  purpose  " 
is  unmistakable  evidence  of  some  spiritual  energy  in  life. 


3lS  OLD   FAITHS   TN  NEW  LIGHT, 

necessity  be  posit ivists.  For  they  have  in 
their  own  sense  of  existence  no  higher  princi- 
ple of  interpretation,  and  therefore  dogs,  if 
reasoning  machines,  as  some  think,  must 
always  be  positivists — never  idealists.  But 
man  brings  in  his  own  spirit  an  ideal  light  to 
nature ;  and  our  own  self -consciousness  fur- 
nishes the  key  which  unlocks  the  diviner  mean- 
ings of  creation.  So  then,  we  conclude,  that 
life  is  another  evidence  to  human  reason  of  a 
higher  order  or  realm  of  supersensible  force. 
Life  is  the  constant  mode  of  some  extra-phy- 
sical law,  one  established  method  of  divine 
energy.  We  have  in  life  the  supersensible  in 
correlation  with  tlie  sensible.  "  Life  " — so 
sa}^  the  authors  of  the  "  Unseen  Universe  " — • 
"  is  a  peculiarity  of  structure  extending  to  the 
unseen.'^  And,  if  we  may  trust  the  analogy 
of  nature,  this  directing  energy  in  life  from 
beyond  visible  nature,  this  influence  sent  from 
God  to  call  matter  for  a  season  to  nobler  uses, 
shall  not  be  lost  with  the  falling  away  of  the 
present  conditions  of  its  activity,  but  shall 
enter  into  other  coi-relations  than  with  the 
matter  of  this  earth,  and  shall  be  consei'ved  in 
other  forms  of  existence.  As  it  came  from 
l)eyond  the  visible  creation  (whether  directly 
from  the  hand  of  God,  or  mediately  through 
some  series  of  higher  causes,  it  is  immaterial 
to  our  argument  to  determine),   so  it  passes 


SIGNIFICANCE'  OF  LIFE.  3  ^  9 

into,  and  shall  be  manifested  in,  realms  of  be- 
ing which  shall  remain  when  present  things 
shall  have  passed  away. 

To  prevent  our  meaning  from  })eing  mis- 
understood, and  our  reasoning  turned  against 
itself,  as  though  we  had  proved  too  much,  I 
add  the  remark  that  the  necessary  conserva- 
tion of  life  in  a  world  to  come  does  not  of 
itself  prove  the  continued  individual  existence 
after  death  of  any  living  creature;  for  other 
conditions  may  be  requisite  for  the  develop- 
ment of  personal  immortality — conditions  of 
rational  and  moral  consciousness  which  would 
seem  to  have  been  reached  not  lower  down  in 
the  scale  of  animate  existence  than  the  soul  of 
man.  But  our  argument  from  life  goes  to 
this  extent,  that  life  is  a  fact  of  extra-physical 
significance,  and  that  it  leads  reason  out  again 
to  the  borders  of  a  realm  of  spiritual  forces, 
and  to  possibilities  of  being  which  transcend 
our  present  experience.  Not  otherwise,  or  by 
supposing  less  than  this,  can  we  render  to  our- 
selves any  rational  interpretation  of  the  origin, 
conservation,  and  outcome,  of  life. 

We  reach  by  still  another  line  of  reasoning 
the  same  conclusion  when  we  follow  out  the 
most  probable  theories  concerning  the  nature 
of  the  soul.  If  ^v^e  knew  what  life  and  soul 
really  are,  we  might  almost  know  what  the 
essential  nature  of  God  himself  is.     But  our 


320  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

proximate  knowledge  of  life  and  mind,  the 
further  inward  we  are  able  to  pursue  it,  leaves 
reason  nearer  God.  Already  the  effort  to 
search  through  nature,  and  in  the  hidden  reces- 
ses of  the  brain  for  the  cause  of  life  and  mind, 
has  hurried  modern  science  out  of  the  jun- 
gle of  gross  materialism.  There  are  few  scien- 
tific leaders  at  the  present  day  who  would  not 
resent  the  imputation  of  holding  what  is  com- 
monly understood  as  materialism.  Reckless 
writers,  in  the  first  excitement  of  a  new  science, 
aimed  to  transfix  the  mind  itself,  from  whose 
movements  the  metaphysicians  and  theolo- 
gians draw  their  divinations,  as  it  is  said  a 
famous  Jewish  archer  shot  at  the  bird  from 
which  the  soothsayers  were  drawing  their 
auguries.  But  it  was  idle  for  Vogt,  or 
Biichnei*,  to  di-eam  of  reaching  with  such 
shafts  the  empyrean  of  Thought,  and  of  bring- 
ing genius  down  to  the  dust.  Science  has  no 
physical  principle  by  means  of  which  it  can 
transfix  sph'it.  We  may  regard,  then,  as  vir- 
tually out  of  the  field  the  reckless  material- 
ism which  reduces  all  the  higher  mental  phe- 
nomena to  a  mass  of  quivering  brains.  But 
what  Prof.  Bain  characterizes  as  "  a  guarded  or 
qualified  materialism  "  ''^  has  taken  its  place. 
The  present  fashion  in  many  (quarters  is  to 


Mind  and  Body,  p.  140. 


NATURE   OF  MIND.  321 

rule  out  all  metaphysical  ideas,  and  to  substi- 
tute eveiywliere  in  scientific  thinking  physical 
formulas  for  the  spiritual  entities  of  the  phi- 
losophers. Great  pains  have  been  taken  in 
the  invention  and  perfecting  of  a  suitable 
physical  symbol  for  the  mind.  A  formula 
vs^hich  neither  afiirmsnor  denies  its  immaterial 
essence,  but  by  which  it  may  be  represented 
as  a  physical  quantity  in  the  scientific  equa- 
tion of  things,  has  lately  been  elaborated. 
Prof.  Bain,  accordingly,  writes  of  ^'one  sub- 
stance with  two  sets  of  properties,  two  sides, 
the  physical  and  the  mental — a  double-faced 
imityy  *  Mr.  Lewes  f  represents  these  two 
aspects  of  life  as  like  the  convex  and  concave 
sides  of  one  identical  curve — though  he  fails 
to  inform  us  what  is  curved,  or  what  substance 
possesses  these  contrasted  properties.  This 
new  positive  philosophy  of  mind  escapes  the 
charge  of  grossly  confounding  mental  and 
physical  processes,  and  conveniently  faces 
both  ways ;  but  Lotze  justly  characterizes  it 
as  a  fruitless  hypothesis,  for  it  explains  noth- 
ing— not  even,  as  we  may  add,  itself.  When 
we  think  it  logically  out,  it  leaves  us  no  better 
oif  than  we  were  before.  For  either  these 
opposite  properties,  the  mental  and  the  physi- 


*  Mind  and  Body,  p.  196. 
f  Physical  Basis,  p.  377. 
14* 


322  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

cal,  must  l^e  properties  tlie  one  of  the  other — . 
the  mind  a  function  of  the  brain,  or  the  brain 
of  the  mind — which  would  be  the  old  material- 
ism, or  idealism,  over  again;  or  else  these 
properties  must  inhere  in  some  third  some- 
tiling,  which  would  launch  us  again  into  meta- 
physics; or  else  we  must  try  and  conceive  of 
nothing  with  two  sides  to  it — a  feat  which 
might  task  the  power  even  of  a  Hegelian.  In 
fact,  this  scientific  formula  for  the  soul  only 
substitutes  one  metaphysical  idea  for  another. 
Our  present  purpose,  however,  is  not  to  show 
the  insufficiency  of  this  ^'  guarded  material- 
ism," but  rather  to  avail  ourselves  of  whatever 
new  light  mental  physiology  may  be  able  to 
throw  across  the  old  problem  of  the  nature  of 
the  soul.*  Possibly  from  these  modern 
studies  of  mind  and  brain  a  modified  imma- 
terialism  may  be  produced,  which  we  may  set 
over  against  the  qualified  materialism  of  Mr. 
Bain  as  *'  the  growing  opinion." 

The  one  great  result,  which  the  physiologists 
assure  us  their  experiments  have  given  them 
ever}^  reason  to  believe,  is  the  fact  of  an  un- 
broken material  succession  coincidins:  with  all 


*  For  a  searching  exposure  of  the  manifold  insufficiency  of 
any  materialistic,  or  semi-materialistic  explanation  of  mind,  and 
its  failure  in  particular  to  explain  the  unity  of  consciousness,  the 
act  of  comparison,  and  the  method  of  memory,  I  would  refer  to 
Lotze's  Microcosm,  Vol.  i..  Books  2  and  '6, 


NATURE   OF  MIND.  Z^2i 

our  mental  operations.*  Molecular  changes 
in  tbe  cells  of  the  brain  uniformly  accompany 
modifications  of  consciousness.  The  mental 
and  the  physical  are  correlated  in  and  through 
the  brain. 

It  cannot  be  shown,  indeed,  that  vibrations 
of  the  cells  of  the  brain  and  conscious  per- 
ceptions, excitations  of  the  centres  of  sensation 
and  reactions  of  will,  are  coincident  in^yoint  of 
time ;  on  the  contrary,  the  experiments  of 
physiologists  have  proved  that  there  is  a  meas- 
urable interval  of  time  between  the  moment 
when  an  impression  made  upon  a  nerve  of 
sense,  as  the  ear  or  eye,  reaches  the  brain,  and 
the  moment  when  the  mind  reacts  upon  it, 
through  attention  and  will.f  The  two  pro- 
cesses, therefore,  the  mental  and  the  physical, 
though  related,  cannot  be  proved  to  be  iden- 
tical. Neither  can  it  be  shown  that  they  are 
coextensive,  or  that  the  one  is  the  quantitative 
equivalent  of  the  whole  of  the  other.  On  the 
contrary.  Prof .  Ferrier  asserts  that  "  the  physio- 
logical activity  of  the  brain  is  not,  however, 

*  Bain  :  Mind  and  Body.  Ferrier :  Functions  of  the  Brain,  p. 
255  seq. 

f  Wundt— Grundziige  der  phys.  Psychologie,  pp.  730  ff. — gives 
the  results  of  series  of  experiments  to  determine  this  "^9«^c/!c>- 
pMjmaV  inlQxvaX.  It  is  estimated  by  Helraholtz  (Ulrici :  Gott 
u.  die  Natur,  i.  s;  279)  as  from  one-tenth  to  one -twentieth  of  a 
second.  It  varies,  however,  under  different  conditions  of  ex- 
pectancy, and  may  be  reduced  to  zero  by  anticipation,  as  is  the 
case  of  attention  to  a  regularly  recurring  sound. 


324  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

altogether  coextensive  with  its  psychological 
functions."*  The  completeness  of  conscious- 
ness, and  the  power  to  carry  on  all  mental  op- 
erations, according  to  the  same  authority,  are 
not  destroyed  by  the  loss  of  one  hemisphere  of 
the  brain.  Neither  can  it  be  shown  that  men- 
tal phenomena  are  in  any  way  necessary  to 
the  continuity  of  nerve-circuits,  or  neural  pro- 
cesses. The  physiological  action,  that  is, 
might  pass  through  a  complete  round,  along 
the  nerve-circuits,  without  the  necessary  rise 
of  consciousness.  "  Consciousness,"  says  Prof. 
Ferrier,f  "  is  not  necessarily  a  concomitant  of 
reflex  action."  It  is  not  necessary  to  any 
nerve-current,  for  the  completion  of  its  own 
proper  action.  The  law  of  the  conservation 
of  physical  energy  does  not  require  anywhere 
in  the  nervous  organization  the  intervention  of 
mind.  Thought  is  not  needed  in  order  to  com- 
plete any  physical  circuit.  The  origin  of 
mind  is  not  demanded  in  a  continuous,  physi- 
cal evolution, — au  important  consideration 
which  the  materialists  overlook.  J 


*  Functions  of  the  Brain,  p.  257. 

t  Ibid.,  p.  17. 

X  Mr.  Lewes  labored  against  the  weight  of  the  received  theo- 
ries of  reflex  action  in  his  effort  to  show  that  the  lower  nerve- 
centres  possess  sensibility ;  still  more  difficult  would  it  be  to 
prove  that  consciousness  is  a  necessary  product  of  the  nervous 
organism,  or  a  factor  essential  to  neural  processes.  But  so  long 
as  consciousness  is  only  an  incidental  result  of  physiological  pro- 
cesses, so  long  as  sensibility  and  neurility,  couaciousness,  and 


MODIFIED   IMMATERIALISM,  3^5 

While  enough,  therefore,  remains  on  strictly 
physiological  grounds  to  show  the  impossi- 
bility of  identifying  mental  operations  with 
nerve-processes,  the  correlation  and  continuity 
of  the  two  is,  nevertheless,  a  demonstrated 
fact.  Physiology  knows  nothing  of  the  force 
which  plays  along  the  nerve-arcs,  nor  of  the 
mode  in  which  excitements  of  nerve-centres 
and  tlioughts  are  related;  but  it  does  know 
that  the  material  circuit  is  unbroken,  and  that 
the  two  processes  are  correlated  according  to 
some  invariable  law.  How,  then,  we  ask, 
should  this  fact  lead  us  to  qualify  our  imma- 
terial ism  ?  We  may  derive,  from  a  suggestion 
of  the  German  physiologist,  Wundt,  a  useful 
hint  in  this  direction.  We  need  to  find  a 
conception  of  the  soul  which  shall  leave  room 
for  any  possible  results  of  physiological  re- 
searches, while  it  shall  remain  true  to  the  im- 
material consciousness  of  man.  Wundt,  in  the 
passage  to  which  I  refer,*  admits  the  clear 
testimony  of  consciousness  that  the  soul  is  a 
unity  which  materialism  utterly  fails  to  under- 


complex  nerve -activity,  cannot  be  shown  to  be  necessarily  related 
and  convertible,  in  one  continuous,  physical  process,  it  is  idle  to 
talk  of  the  "fiction  of  mind."  Siiice  the  above  was  written  I 
have  noticed  the  significant  admission,  in  an  article  by  Prof.  Tyn- 
dall  on  ' '  Virchow  and  Evolution,  ' '  that  ' '  the  physical  processes 
are  complete  in  themselves,  and  would  go  on  just  as  they  do,  if 
consciousness  were  not  at  all  implicated." 
*  Grundzuge,  p.  802. 


26  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 


stand,  and  the  knowledge  of  wbicli,  he  says, 
stands  firmer  than  the  certainty  of  the  outer 
world.  Bnt  he  raises  the  inquiry  whether 
the  unity  of  the  conscious  self  necessarily  im- 
plies that  the  soul  is  a  sim23le  substance,  as  is 
usually  supposed;  and  he  presumes  rather 
that  the  soul  is  "the  ordered  unity  of  many 
.elements."  Now,  however  that  may  be,  at 
least  we  would  say,  one  of  the  very  elementary 
powers  of  which  the  soul  consists  may  be  its 
capacity  of  emVjodiment.  One  of  the  rudi- 
mentary necessities  of  mind  may  be  a  certain 
organization  of  matter,  which  is  reached  first 
in  the  human  brain.  The  physical  life  may. 
be  one  element  essential  to  the  existence,  or 
the  completion,  of  a  soul.  It  may  be  the  very 
nature  of  a  created  soul  to  strike  its  root  down 
deep  into  matter,  and  to  take  up  material 
forces  into  its  own  life,  while  it  rises  itself 
into  a  higher  element,  and  derives  its  trans- 
forming power  from  the  breath  of  the  Spirit 
of  God,  and  has  its  ultimate  being  above  the 
earth.  We  need  simply  to  enlarge,  or  to  mod- 
ify, our  conception  of  soul  so  as  to  take  into 
the  idea  of  it  its  physical  root,  as  well  as  its 
immaterial  life  and  its  spiritual  flower.  In- 
deed, it  is  not  true  that  we  are  ever  conscious 
of  soul  and  body,  but  of  soul  in  body,  and 
body  in  relation  to  soul.  In  the  nature  of 
things,  so  far  as  our  consciousness  can  disclose 


-MODIFIED  IMMATERIALISM.  32? 

it,  mind  is  made  elementarily  for  matter,  and 
matter  is  made  ultimately  for  mind.     Soul  is 
made  to  come  into  full  conscious  existence  as 
embodied.     And  so,  on  the  other  hand,  matter 
was  made  with  a  long  look  forward  towards 
mind;   and  the   material  creation   reaches  its 
final  development  only  when  at  last,  through 
the  human  brain,  it  vibrates  in  perfect  response 
to   mind.     Organic  life   all  the  way  up  is  a 
growing  prophecy  of  soul.*     The  believer  at 
least  in  the  creative  Spirit  of  God  is  the  ^^ery 
last  person  who  needs  to  deny  that  there  is  a 
natural  and  necessary  relation  between  matter 
and  a  created  soul.     He  may  hold  to  the  differ- 
ence  in   kind    between   things   spiritual    and 
things     material,    which    we    experience    all 
around  our  consciousness,  without  supposing 
any  real  breach  of  continuity  in  the  growth 
and  adaptations  of  that  great  Avhole  of  crea- 
tion of  which  mind  and  matter,  body  and  soul, 
are    alike    original     and    divine    parts.       The 
embodied  soul  appears  to  him  as  the  natural, 
predetermined  unity  of    two    great  processes 
of  evolution — the  material  and  the  spiritual — 
both    of    which    come   from  the   living;    God. 
The    conscious    soul    is  the  mirror  of  all  the 
world  before  it,  and  the  reflection  gleams  in 


^*  See  Rothe,  The.  Ethik,  vol.  1,  pp.  303  fE.,  for  a  speculative, 
but  suggestive,  development  of  this  subject. 


328  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

it  of  a  higher  world  beyond.  The  besouled 
body  is  the  goal  of  one  world-age,  as  the  em- 
bodied soul  may  be  the  beginning  of  the 
power  of  the  world  to  come.  And,  if  we  be- 
gin with  this  fundamental  assumption  that 
the  soul  in  its  very  make,  or  elementary  nature, 
needs  some  body  for  its  own  birth  into  con- 
scious existence,  and  that  body  needs  some 
soul  for  its  own  highest  organization ;  then 
we  are  already,  at  the  start,  beyond  the  old 
dualism  of  Descartes  and  Leibnitz,  and  we 
need  iiot  suppose  any  miraculous  assistance 
or  mechanical!  harmony,  like  that  of  two  clocks 
regulated  to  keep  time  together,  in  order  to 
maintain  our  belief  in  the  union  of  an  imma- 
terial spirit  and  a  mortal  body.  There  is,  in- 
deed, a  pre-established  harmony  between  the 
two ;  but  it  is  not  the  harmony  of  a  miracle, 
or  of  a  mechanical  adjustment,  but  of  two 
natures  and  growths  from  the  same  spiritual 
and  divine  source. 

We  shall  show  in  another  chapter  how 
these  qualifications  of  immaterialism  affect 
the  belief  in  immortality.  If,  however,  Ave 
press  our  questionings  beyond  the  mere  fact 
of  the  natural  and  necessary  relation  of  mind 
and  body,  and  seek  to  gain  some  definite  con- 
ception of  the  mode  of  their  adaptation,  we 
can  only  hope,  at  best,  to  form  some  notiou 
which   may    be  useful  simply  as  a  tentative 


THEORIES   OF    THE  SOUL.  3^9 

theory  or  scientific  imagination.  Now  that 
the  older  and  once  favorite  hypothesis  that 
some  one  point  or  atom  in  the  brain  is  the  seat 
of  the  soul,  has  been  exploded  by  recent  phys- 
iology, two  suppositions  have  been  proposed 
in  its  stead.  The  one  is  put  forward  by 
Lotze,  who  supposes  that  the  mind  is  so  made 
as  to  affect,  and  be  affected  by,  a  particular 
kind  of  organized  matter ;  and,  wherever  that 
matter  for  mind  exists  (whether  all  in  one 
place,  or  at  intervals),  there  the  soul  is  and 
acts.  This  matter  for  mind  Lotze,  however, 
thinks  is  confined  within  certain  limits  in  the 
brain.  The  fact  of  the  relation  and  inter- 
action between  the  two  he  regards  as  no  more, 
and  no  less,  mysterious  and  inexplicable,  than 
the  fact  of  the  action  between  any  two  parti- 
cles of  matter,  or  between  two  wheels.  No 
action  or  relation,  he  holds,  can  be  understood 
without  the  belief  in  the  one  spiritual  ground 
of  the  universe,  the  One  in  whom  all  things 
have  their  being. 

The  other  view,  which  rises  perhaps  to  the 
dignity  of  a  scientific  imagination  of  the  soul, 
is  that  propounded  by  Prof.  Ulrici,  starting 
from  the  maxim,  "  No  force  without  stuff." 
Ulrici  works  out  with  ingenious  plausibility 
the  supposition  of  a  spiritual  body,  or  soul- 
substance.  The  soul  is  a  continuous,  non- 
atomic  body,  or  fluid,  which  has  its  own  cen- 


33^  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

tre  of  energy,  and  is  circumscribed  by  the  ner- 
vous oi'oanism  of  the  l)ody.  We  are  not  anx- 
ious to  adopt,  or  to  defend,  either  of  these 
ideas  of  the  nature  of  the  soul  in  its  relation 
to  the  body ;  we  mention  them  simply  to  show 
how  any  speculations,  which  do  not  beg  the 
whole  question  of  mind,  and  w^hich  possess 
the  slightest  degree  of  plausibility,  carry 
thought  out  into  the  realm  of  supersensible 
realities. 

Having  thus  brought  before  us  modern 
ideas  and  tendencies  wdth  regard  to  the  nature 
of  the  soul,  w^e  are  now  prepared  to  see  how 
the  only  tenable  conclusions  from  these  dis- 
cussions lend  additional  confirmation  to  our 
belief  in  the  unseen  universe.  Whether  we 
refuse  to  be  led  one  step  beyond  the  pure  and 
uncompromising  immaterialism  of  Descartes, 
"  I  think,  therefore  I  am  ;  "  or  whether  we 
seek  to  qualify  and  modify  otir  spiritualism 
by  the  use  of  physiological  methods ;  we  are 
conducted,  upon  any  theory  or  imagination 
which  does  not  confound  all  distinctions,  far 
beyond  the  confines  of  sensible  nature,  and 
are  compelled  to  believe  that  as  besouled 
bodies  we  are  not  only  born  into  this  material 
sphere  where  death  reigns,  but  also  have  our 
birthright  in  a  different  kingdom,  and  larger 
domain  of  life,  to  whose  order  of  forces  and 
laws  we  are  now  in  our  higher  nature  sub- 


THE  UNSEEN  WORLD  OF  THE  BIBLE.     ZZ^ 

jected,  and  which  we  know  in  part.  The 
phenomena  of  mind,  and  the  phenomena  of 
life,  open  avenues  out  into  dim  and  distant 
vistas  of  existence.  As  within  the  limits  of 
our  senses  we  discover  element  suffused  upon 
element,  and  life  rising  out  of  life,  so  our  own 
spij'itual  nature  and  thoughts  are  the  evi- 
dences of  things  unseen,  the  intimations  to  us 
of  possibilities  of  being  beyond  what  now  ap- 
pears,— as  an  apostle  believed  that  our  world 
is  surrounded  by  realms  rising  above  realms 
of  principalities,  and  powers,  and  thrones,  and 
dominions. 

These  suggestions  and  probabilities  of  nature 
are  cumulative  in  their  force.  We  may  be 
mistaken  in  particular  facts  or  reasonings  from 
nature  ;  but  we  can  hardly  be  mistaken  in  the 
impression  of  the  whole.  Many  signs  in  the 
make  of  things  conspire  to  point  us  to  some- 
thing beyond  the  limits  of  the  present  world. 
Nature  seems,  according  to  all  appearances,  to 
be  but  a  part  of  one  stupendous  whole.  And 
this  first  impression  of  nature  upon  us,  we  say, 
is  not  contradicted,  but  rather  confirmed,  by 
all  our  subsequent  knowledge  of  the  present 
visible  system  of  the  creation. 

If  we  turn  now  from  nature  to  the  Bible, 
we  shall  find  that  the  conception  which  has 
been  growing  upon  us  of  an  unseen  universe 
of  a  different  constitution  from  the  present 


33^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

world — celestial,  not  terrestrial — yet  in  some 
way  connected  with  this  present  world,  and  in 
its  final  form  the  glorified  consummation  of 
all  God's  creative  processes,  is  the  express 
truth  of  revelation.  This  conception,  which 
we  have  seen  to  be  not  contrary  to  the  course 
of  nature,  or  unscientific,  is  held  up  before  us 
by  revelation,  yet  it  is  not  fixed  for  us  in  any 
one  definite  picture  or  determinate  idea ;  the 
Bible  leaves  us  as  it  were  gazing  into  a  glow- 
ing sky  at  the  close  of  the  long  day  of  this 
world's  history,  but  if  we  attempt  to  fix  in  the 
eye  its  changing  hues,  or  to  make  a  picture  of 
it,  the  vision  passes  from  us.  While  pictorial 
representations  of  heaven  are  usually  unscrip- 
tural  and  hurtful,  there  are,  however,  certain 
general  conceptions  contained  in  the  Bible 
with  regard  to  the  final  completion  of  our  un- 
finished world,  and  broken  lives,  which  we 
may  happily  compare  with  the  suggestions  of 
nature  already  noticed.  Rejecting,  without 
further  discussion,  extreme  materialistic,  and 
purely  idealistic  views  of  the  future  state,  as 
these  are  thrown  out  by  the  course  of  the  gener- 
al historical  tendency  of  biblical  interpretation, 
we  derive  from  revelation  the  following  par- 
ticulars :  1.  There  is,  accoi'ding  to  the  Bible, 
a  realm  or  order  of  existence  which  existed 
before  and  shall  remain  after  the  tilings  that 
are  seen.     At  the   beginning  of  this  present 


AN  OLDER  ORDER  OF  EXISTENCE.       ZZZ 

world-aofe  there  was  another,  older  order  of  ex- 
isteiice  than  our  system  of  suns  and  stars.** 
Many  scriptures  have  familiarized  us  with  the 
idea  that  the  present  material  system  shall 
finally  be  dissolved.  As  a  richly  jewelled  robe 
this  starry  space  shall  be  folded  up  and  it  shall 
be  changed.  Besides  direct  assertions  of  impend- 
ing dissolution,  and  the  vivid  metaphors  of  uni- 
versal change  to  be  found  in  the  New  Testament, 
it  is  expressly  said  that  several  elements  which 
enter  into  the  very  structure  of  the  world,  and 
are  necessary  to  its  continuance,  shall  pass 
away.  *'  There  was  no  more  sea."  Looking 
out  from  Patmos'  lonely  cliff,  St.  John  saw 
before  him  the  boundless  sea — the  sepulchre  of 
fleets — the  oblivion  of  the  pride  of  kings — the 
devouring  sea — from  the  days  of  old  the  rest- 
less, ever-hungry  sea;  and  the  sea,  spreading 
its  waste  of  changing  waters  around  the  whole 
horizon  of  the  revelator,  became  to  him  the 
one  great  emblem  of  mutability,  the  image  of 
this  passing  world-age ;  and  he  saw  "  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth,  and  there  was  no 
more  sea ;"  the  whole  changing  world  is  passed 
away.  St.  John  saw  also  the  stars  rising  from 
the  changeful  sea,  and  sinking  into  its  insatia- 
ble depths ;  the  stars  of  heaven,  as  they  rose 


♦  Gen.  i.  contains  no  account  of  the  creation  of  the  angels 
compare  Job  xxxviii.  7  ;  also  Heb.  xi.  3. 


334  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

and  fell,  marking  succession  and  time ;  and  in 
the  spirit  the  revelator  saw  above  the  sea,  and 
from  beyond  the  stars,  another  vision  of  exceed- 
ing glory  ;  for  he  saw  an  angel  standing  upon 
the  sea,  and  upon  the  earth,  who  ^'  lifted  up 
his  hand  to  heaven,  and  sware  by  Him  that 
liveth  forever  and  ever,  who  created  heaven 
and  the  things  that  therein  are,  and  the  earth 
and  the  things  that  therein  are,  and  the  sea 
and  the  things  that  are  therein,  that  there 
should  be  time  no  longer."  Time  itself  shall 
pass  away  Avith  the  restless  sea,  and  the  rising 
and  the  setting  of  the  stars,  marking  the  change 
of  night  and  day;  and  eternity  shall  take  the 
j^lace  of  the  succession  of  events  in  time. 
What  the  order  of  eternity,  into  Avhich  our 
world-age  shall  be  dissolved,  is  like,  we  cannot 
tell ;  we  gain,  perhaps,  the  only  possible  sug- 
gestion of  it,  not  when  we  add  years  to  years 
interminably,  but  when  we  lose  all  sense  of 
time  in  thinking;  when  events  lie  in  memory 
or  imagination  like  a  picture  before  us — trans- 
lated, as  it  were,  out  of  time — and  in  one 
mental  vision  we  see  them  as  a  continuous 
whole. '^     Inconceivable  as  the  eternity  around 


*  In  the  discussions  of  eternal  life  and  death  it  is  too  often  for- 
gotten that  the  word  eternal  is  the  unknown  quantity  of  revela- 
tion, transcending  present  experience,  and  not  to  be  represented 
by  heaps  of  ages,  or  to  be  defined  as  endless.  It  is  the  timeless 
state. 


THE    WORLD    OF   REALITY.  335 

time  may  seem,  the  Bible  teaches  that  there  is 
another  order  of  existence  which  is  not  tem- 
poral, and  into  which  the  heavens  and  the 
earth  and  all  things  therein  shall  pass  away. 

2.  Another  clear  teaching  of  revelation  is 
that  this  unseen  world  is  not  a  shadowy  or 
unsu])stantial  existence.  On  the  contrary,  in 
comparison  with  its  reality,  the  visible  world 
is  the  shadow  ;  and  in  comparison  with  its  ac- 
tivities this  present  life  is  as  a  sleep  and  a 
dream.  The  New  Testament  revelation  of  the 
other  world  brings  to  the  front  the  conception 
of  fulness  of  life.  When  the  heroes  were 
slain  u])on  the  plains  of  Troy,  Homer  says 
their  souls  were  dispatched  to  the  shades,  but 
they  themselves  were  left  a  prey  to  dogs  and 
birds.  Christianity  has  reversed  the  language 
of  the  ancient  l)ard,  and  one  of  its  poets  sings  : 

"I  looked  behind  to  find  my  past,- 
And  lo,  it  had  gone  before." 

Achilles  regards  the  life  of  the  merest  drudge 
on  earth  as  better  than  the  best  of  the  unsub- 
stantial glories  of  Elysium.  The  Christian 
hero  is  willing  to  live,  but  he  desires  to  depart 
to  be  with  Christ,  which  is  far  better.  Though 
the  Bible  represents  the  realm  of  the  invisible, 
into  which  the  dying  awake,  as  not  material 
in  the  same  manner  as  the  visible  heavens  and 
this  earth  are  material — as  of  a  celestial   and 


33^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

not  terrestrial  structure — it  is  too  plain  to 
need  proof  that  the  Bible  holds  out  tlie  hope 
of  an  existence  which  shall  not  be  wholly  im- 
material, or  without  some  form  of  embodi- 
ment. 

3.  This  other  world  has  some  connection, 
or  correlations,  with  this  pi'esent  world.  This 
unseen  realm  of  existence  is  as  the  other  hemi- 
sphere of  the  whole  universe,  which  is  the  one 
creation  of  the  living  God.  At  some  points 
its  laws  are  made  continuous  with  present 
physical  laws,  and  in  some  ways  the  powers  of 
the  world  to  come  act,  and  are  acted  upon  by 
the  forces  of  the  present  world.  The  Bible 
reveals  the  existence  of  a  vital  relationship 
between  our  life  here  and  in  the  unseen  king- 
dom of  God.  And,  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures, the  two  parts  of  the  universe,  the  higher 
and  the  lower  realms,  are  ^'  at  sundry  times  and 
in  divers  manners  "  made  to  touch  each  other. 
There  have  been  historical  actions  and  re- 
actions, so  the  Bible  teaches,  between  the  two. 
Christ,  in  his  sinless  humanity,  was  conscious 
of  the  meeting  in  his  own  person  of  both 
worlds — the  natural  and  the  supernatural — 
and  his  life  was  the  harmony  of  two  lives — 
the  earthly  and  the  heavenly.*  The  miracles 
of  the  Bible  may  ])e  regarded   in  this  light  as 


•  John  iii.  13. 


INFLUENCE  FROM   THE    UNSEEN.        Z^l 

the  descent  of  the  higher  energy  which  sets 
the  lower  forces  quivering  in  un^vonted  ways  ; 
and  the  higher  \^'orks  upon  the  lower  at  points 
where  the  two  are  made  capable  of  contact 
and  influence,  so  that  energy  may  be  trans- 
mitted from  a])ove  for  the  working  out  of  op- 
erations beyond  nature,  and  yet  the  lower  re- 
main unshattered.  A  miracle  is  not  a  sudden 
blow  struck  in  the  face  of  nature,  but  a  use  of 
nature,  according  to  its  inherent  capacities  of 
service,  by  higher  powers.  At  some  point 
the  elastic  net-work  of  material  forces  yields, 
without  breaking,  to  pressure  from  the  ele- 
ment without  in  which  it  has  its  being ;  and 
we  who  dwell  within  the  sphere  of  nature, 
and  can  therefore  see  only  the  side  which  is 
moved,  or  pressed  in,  call  it  a  miracle  ; — its  own 
laws  of  contraction  or  expansion  we  know 
could  not  produce  that  special  motion  ;  but 
the  miraculous  in  nature  was  not  miraculous 
to  Jesus,  who  knew  that  there  are  two  sides, 
the  one  answering  to  the  other,  a  visible  and 
an  invisible  half,  of  the  one  great  whole  of 
God's  universe.  A  miracle  would  be  an  im- 
possibility only  in  a  cast-iron  universe  ;  bnt  we 
know  that  this  material  system  is  not  a  ...ird, 
dead,  brazen  sphere,  but  instinct  w^ith  life,  and 
vibrating  to  a  thousand  influences  ;  and  forces 
which  we  can  hardly  name,  still  less,  follow 
and  understand,  play  in  and  out  among  its 
15 


33^  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

threads.  For  auo^lit  we  know  an  ultimate  law 
of  matter  may  be  the  power  to  receive  the  im- 
pression of  a  spiritual  force ;  and  the  first 
principle  of  motion  may  be  the  impulse  of  a 
divine  will.  The  Bible  has  no  trouble  with 
miracles,  for  prophets  and  apostles  believe  in 
both  spheres,  and  their  natural  correlation — 
the  celestial  and  the  terrestrial.  Perhaps  all 
we  need  do  to  escaj)e  from  scientific  scru- 
ples with  regard  to  the  possibility  of  the 
miraculous,  is  simply  to  enlarge  our  conception 
of  nature  until  it  shall  include  the  whole  of 
things.  A  miracle,  then,  would  be  no  l^reach 
of  the  law  of  continuity.  It  might  be  defined 
as  the  natural  conservation  of  a  supernatural 
force,  and  that  in  accordance  with  the  whole 
nature  of  things.  To  one  taking  into  his  phi- 
losophy both  elements,  both  spheres  of  force, 
a  miracle  ceases  to  be  miraculous,  and  Avould 
seem  no  more  incredible  than  would  be  the 
shaking  of  a  tree-top  in  a  breath  of  air  from 
the  sky,  thongh  the  tree  never  could  shake  it- 
self, and  no  hand  is  seen,  stretched  out  from 
below,  upon  the  bough.  The  breath  of  the 
spirit  of  God  may  bend  and  sway  nature  in 
manifold  ways  without  uprooting  it,  or  de- 
stroying its  fibre  and  life.  But  if  we  do  not 
believe  in  the  powers  of  the  air,  of  course  we 
must  deny,  for  scientific  reasons,  the  testimony 
of  our  senses,  and  say,  not  a  leaf  has  stirred, 


INFLUENCE  FROM   THE    UNSEEN.        339 

the   tree-top  was    not   shaken, — whenever  wo 
cannot  see  the  hand  reaching  up  from  below. 

But  besides  special  impulses  from  without, 
or  miracles,  the  biblical  doctrine  of  providence 
implies,  also,  that  there  are  regular  and  estab- 
lished means    of  communication  between  the 
two  hemispheres   of  the  one  universe.     God 
has  provided  regular  lines  for  the  passing  to 
and    fro   of   influences  from    both   kingdoms. 
The  spirit  has  not  been  imprisoned  in  matter, 
as  a  woman  with  her  child,  according  to  the 
old  legend,  was  walled  in  by  the  masons  of 
Magdeburg,   who  built    up    around    her   the 
walls  of  the  city.     Our  souls,  on  the  contrary, 
have  air  and  life  from  the  great  unseen  worlrd 
without.      The    net-work    of   material  forces, 
amid  which  our  free-wills  move,. is  ma^de  ca- 
pable of  conducting  to  us  magnetic  imiluences 
from  the  will  of  him  who  holds  .us,  and  the 
whole  system  of  things,  in  his  i^Jlmighty  hand. 
The  very  system  and  order  of  nature  render 
it  the    perfect    instrument,  responsive   to  his 
sli2:htest   touch.     Were  /"there    not    a  natural 
order,  no  special  provirdences  would  be  conceiv- 
able.    Providence  .i^s  the  intentional  and  intel- 
ligible use  of  a  s:ystem  of  nature  according  to 
its  capacities  •cind  powers.     Hence  the  Bible, 
while  nowhere    denying  second  causes,  often 
passes  b Y  them,  and  forgets  the  system  in  the 
presen^^e  of  the  power  that  uses  it  for  his  good 


340  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

purposes ;  as  we  hardly  think  of  the  instrument 
under  the  skilled  players  hand,  but  give  our- 
selves up  to  the  enjoyment  of  his  music.  Pro- 
phets and  apostles  foi-get  the  keys,  as  they 
listen  to  the  harmonies  of  providence.  *'  What 
hath  God  wrought,"  is  the  exclamation  of  the 
Bible.  So  prayer  is  a  regular  or  estab- 
lished mode  of  action  between  the  two  spheres 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  whole  system 
of  things.  Prayer,  in  the  biblical  conception 
of  it,  is  a  power,  a  supernatural  power,  which 
escapes  out  of  this  material  complex  of  causes, 
\       enters   a  higher   sphere,    reaches   the   throne 

Nupon  which  all  things  wait,  returns  through 
is|gher  ministries  to  set  in  motion,  or  to  direct, 
naimral  causes  which  else  would  have  re- 
maineid  untouched.  Yet  nowhere  on  its  as- 
cent, or  .its  descent,  in  going  or  returning, 
does  prayer  vescape  from  the  order  and  beyond 
the  limits  of  t^^e  laws,  ^vhich  form  the  whole 
creation,  and  tog^ether  work  the  perfect  will 
of  God.  The  bi])i^ical  doctrine  of  prayer  is 
simply  the  revelation  «of  one  established  mode 
of  action  between  earth  and  heaven ;  and  our 
conception  of  nature,  and  (s'octrine  of  the  con- 
servation of  force,  ought  to  be  large  enough 
to  include  both  halves  of  the  universe,  and  to 
comprehend  the  continuous  course  of  an  effec- 
tive prayer. 

4.  One  other  and  culminating  points  of  the 


COMPLETION   OF    THE   CREATION.       34 1 

biblical   revelation   needs   now  to   be  stated. 
The  whole  process  of  ci-eation  shall  reach  its 
end,  not  in  the   perfection  of   either    sphere 
alone — the    earthly  or  the  heavenly — but  in 
the  consummation  of  both  in  a  more  glorious 
state  which  shall  remain.     The  end  shall  not 
be  the  new  heavens,  or  the  new  earth,  but  the 
new  heavens  and  the   new  earth.     The   con- 
summation, in  other  words,  shall  be  the  result 
of  the  passing  of  both  the  heavenly  and  the 
earthly  into  a  final  reality  in  which  the  whole 
creation  shall  receive  its  glorious  consumma- 
tion.   In  the  end  all  forces  shall  be  conserved, 
and  all  things  shall  be  fulfilled.    Thus,  the  nar- 
rative of  the  transfio^uration  leads  us  to  think  o"^ 
the  dead  as  still  looking  forward  to  a  kingcim 
which  is  to  come ;  and  another  Scriptve  de- 
scribes the  angels  as  gazing  into  themystery 
of  redemption  which  is  yet  to   b'"  revealed  • 
and  Jesus  himself  is  said  henceirth  to  be  ex- 
pecting until  he  shall  delivemis  kingdom  to 
the  Father,  that  when  the  ea  comes  God  may 
be  all  in  all.     One  pas^e  from  the  Apostle 
Paul  brings  out  in  deiSite  teaching  the  bibli- 
cal hope  of  the  fin?  glorification  of  the  crea- 
tion.   (Eom.  viii.i".)    This  whole  visible  crea- 
tion, which  ha  been  made  subject  to  vanity, 
that    is,    to  railty    and    transitoriness,    and 
which,  ints  struggle    of  existence,  groaneth 
and   tr-aileth   in   pain    together  until   now, 


342  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

awaits  Avitli  earnest  expectation  its  more  glo- 
rious destiny,  and  it  also  shall  pass  into  the 
liberty  of  the  children  of  God.  This  world 
shall  come  to  its  fruition  in  the  next.  The 
perfection  of  the  lower  shall  be  a  part  of  the 
perfection  of  the  higher.  Heaven  shall  be 
richer  because  the  earth  has  been,  and  the 
earthly  shall  enter  into  the  final  glory  of  the 
heavenly.  So  the  whole  creation  shall  be 
finished.  This  material  part  of  it  shall  be 
changed,  but  not  lost.  He  by  whom  all 
things  consist  shall  come  in  the  last  great  day 
not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil.  All  visible 
things,  therefore,  are  types  and  symbols  of 
"■he  better  things  which  shall  be.  I^ature  is 
^^^^  great  metaphor  of  the  world  to  come. 
Heav^.,^  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  flowers 
and  fields,  broad  landscapes  and  the  firma- 
ment of  Sc^vg^  the  poetry  of  nature,  shall  not 
utterly  vani>Ji  and  be  lost  when  the  earth 
shall  melt  with  %rvent  heat,  and  the  heavens 
shall  be  rolled  up 'is  a  scroll;  for  the  material 
shall  itself  be  glorij^jd  in  the  new  creation, 
and  the  age-long  process  of  creative  wisdom 
and  power,  begun  in  the  depths  of  the  divine 
counsels,  and  continued  in  the  arrowing  \v^on- 
dei-  of  God's  manifold  worksy  shall  bear  at 
last  its  perfect  fruit  in  the  kingdom  which 
the  Son  shall  deliver  up  to  tlie  Father  when 
the  end  shall  come  and  God  sliall  be  aiJ  in  all. 


WHERE  IS  HEAVEN?  343 

The  biblical  teaching  of  the  final  comple- 
tion of  all  things  just  stated  includes  the  doc- 
trine of  the  resurrection;  and  our  review  of 
the  divine  processes  of  self-impartation  and 
self-revelation  will  not,  therefore,  be  complete 
until  we  shall  have  brought  into  the  light  of 
the  all-illumining  idea  of  development  the 
scriptural  doctiine,  also,  of  the  i*esurrection. 

We  delay,  ho^vever,  for  a  moment  to  point 
out  one  useful  result,  which  we  have  already 
gained  at  this  point  in  the  ascent  of  our  argu- 
ment. We  have  reached  a  position  ab  e  one 
of  the  most  chilling  of  those  perplexities 
which  are  apt  to  rise  in  our  minds,  and  to  en- 
velop in  darkness  our  hope  of  immortality. 
A  real  difficulty  to  be  overcome  by  our  in- 
stinctive faith  in  immortality  lies  in  the  im- 
possibility of  finding  any  place  within  the 
bounds  of  space  where  we  may  suppose  the 
scenes  of  the  future  life  to  be  located.  As  an 
increasing  knowledge  of  geography  drove  the 
Elysian  fields,  and  the  happy  islands  of  the 
blessed,  farther  and  farther  away,  until,  when 
the  globe  had  been  circumnavigated,  no  place 
was  left  for  the  myths  of  the  ancients ;  so 
modern  astronomy  seems  to  have  banished  the 
Christian's  heaven  from  the  skies,  until  at  last 
no  imaginable  place  for  the  resplendent  city 
of  the  revelator  seems  to  be  left  within  the 
bounds  of   space.      We  still   tell   the   child, 


344  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

"  Heaven  is  up  in  the  sky."  But  the  sky  no- 
where gives  to  our  astronomy  the  faintest  sug- 
gestion of  a  place  for  heaven.  Sweclenborg 
visited  in  the  spirit  certain  planets  known  to 
the  astronomy  of  his  day,  and  had  little  diffi- 
culty in  finding  orbs  upon  which  to  domesti- 
cate his  angelic  acquaintances ;  but  we  now 
know  enough  of  the  constitution  of  those 
worlds  to  say  that  any  life  upon  them  like 
ours,  or  having  any  physical  correspondence 
to  our  bodies,  would  be  hardly  endurable,  and 
at  all  events  must  be  transitory  and  corrupti- 
ble. We  discover,  as  we  look  away  from  this 
earth,  what  ?  An  atmosphere  extending  for  a 
few  miles,  and,  by  means  of  minute  particles 
of  common  matter  suspended  in  it,  spreading 
over  us  the  world's  apparent  ceiling  of  blue; 
then  gradually  growing  colder,  and  losing  its 
density,  until  the  last  filaments  and  fringes  of 
it  fly  out  into  a  medium  still  more  ethereal. 
Along  the  pulsations  of  that  ethereal  some- 
thing— what  it  is  we  know  not — we  look  still 
farther  and  farther  away,  until,  hanging  sus- 
pended in  space  by  forces  whose  nature  we 
can  only  vaguely  guess,  some  three  hundred 
and  sixty-one  millions  of  miles  from  the  earth, 
there  appears  another  world,  a  mass  of  molten 
fluid,  which  is  so  hot  as  to  emit  a  dull  glow 
from  its  surface.  Within  the  vast  orbit  of 
Jupiter  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  a  place  such 


WHERE  IS  HEAVEN?  345 

as  we  hope  for  when  we  say  to  the  child, 
"  Heaven  is  up  there  !  "  Gases  and  heat,  and 
molten  fluid  ;  but  no  paradise  of  green  fields, 
and  living  waters,  do  we  discover  any  signs 
of,  from  the  sun  to  the  planet  which  Sweden- 
borg  could  people  with  beings  having  corre- 
spondences to  ourselves.  Give  then  imagina- 
tion wings  !  We  have  messengers  hastening 
to  us  from  the  farthest  stars ;  but  they  bring 
no  message  of  the  heavenly  city  descending 
from  God.  We  cannot  with  the  ancients  take 
refuge  in  our  ignorance,  nor  hide  the  heaven 
of  our  hope  in  the  mysteries  of  space.  For 
we  have  learned  the  alphabet  of  these  messen- 
gers from  the  stars.  We  can  question  them, 
and  they  all  tell  the  same  old  story  of  the 
earth.  The  language  of  the  heavens,  which 
our  science  hears,  declares  the  same  perishable 
dust  which,  we  tread  under  foot.  There  is 
iron,  and  sodium,  and  heated  hydrogen,  and 
other  earthly  elements,  to  be  found  among  the 
stars — nothing  else.  This  visible  universe  is 
made  throughout  of  the  same  perishable  stuff ; 
it  is  of  one  piece,  and  is  growing  old.  There 
is  no  place  for  heaven  in  the  skies !  But 
faith,  beset  by  the  difficulties  of  our  growing 
scientific  knowledge  of  the  physical  structure 
of  the  sidereal  system,  may  again  take  refuge 
in  our  ignorance,  and  ask :  Ho^v  do  you  know 
that  some  orb,  though  formed  of  common 
15* 


34^  OLD   FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

earthly  elements,  may  not  be  fitted  up  and 
adorned  by  the  hand  of  Omnipotence  for  the 
final  abode  of  beatified  spirits  ?  But  from 
this  refuge  in  ignorance,  advancing  knowledge 
asrain  drives  faith.  We  know  there  is  not  a 
star  at  rest,  not  a  sun  that  is  not  burning  out, 
not  a  world  that  is  not  passing  away.  Change 
and  dissolution  are  written  on  the  face  of  the 
heavens,  as  well  as  on  this  earth.  And  we 
cannot  conceive  of  an  undying  body  composed 
of  corruptiV^le  matter.  The  biblical  concep- 
tion of  immortality  is  not  the  conception  of  a 
perpetual  transference  of  life  from  one  form 
of  embodiment  to  another  within  a  perishable 
ci'eation.  The  doctrine  of  the  endless  trans- 
migration of  the  energy  of  a  soul  is  neither 
pleasing  nor  probable.  We  agree  with  the 
authors  of  the  "  Unseen  Universe,"*  so  far  as  to 
dismiss  the  idea  of  a  superior  order  of  beings, 
connected  with  the  present  physical  universe, 
as  untenable.  W^e  give  up  immortality  upon 
the  present  physical  basis  of  life. 

But  what  then?  Have  we  given  up  the 
scriptural  i-evelation  of  heaven  ?  On  the  con- 
trary, we  have  simply  been  looking  for  it  in  a 
wrong  direction.  As  the  microscope  cannot 
find  the  secret  of  life,  so  the  telesco])e  cannot 
discover   the   land  of   the   living.     We   have 


*  Page  151. 


A   DIFFICULTY  REMOVED.  ZM 

been  searching  for  immortality  in  tlie  wrong 
half   of   the    universe,   and   with    the    wrong 
powers.     We   need  to  knock  at  doors  which 
are  closed  to  the  approach  of  the  senses,  but 
which  open  to  the  thoughts  of  the  spirit.    We 
need   to  locate  heaven  without  this  material 
system  which  waxes  old  and  shall  perish.     We 
must  trust  our  intimations  that  the  creation  is 
more  than  appears,  and  that  there  is  a  larger 
realm  of  existence  than  the  land  in  which  we 
dwell.     We   must  look  for  heaven — not  any- 
where under  the  stars — but  in  the  other  invisi- 
ble hemisphere  of  the  universe.     It  is  not  a 
part  of  the  present  visible  creation,  and  shall 
not   pass    away  with    the    dissolving    worlds. 
Heaven  with  its  abiding  life  is  in  the  Unseen, 
out  of  which  the  worlds   appeared,  and  into 
which  all  their  glory  shall  depart.     Heaven 
is  the  end  of  all  the  Creator's  ways.     It  is,  in 
its  final  and  enduring  perfection,  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  Avhole  creation.     "-  It  doth  not  yet 
appear  what  we  shall  be."     Thus  we  reach  a 
point  where  faith  may  look  into  the  future 
and  wait  in  hope,  undisturbed  by   any  news 
science    may    bring   from   the    stars,  and   un- 
troubled by  any  difficulties  in  understanding 
where  the  living  who  are  gone  from  us,  are 
abiding.      So   the   Bible    reveals   a   celestial 
glory,  which  is  more  than  the  terrestrial,  of  a 
different  order,  and  into  whose  higher  realms 


34^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

of  being,  unrealized  as  yet,  we  and  all  things 
temporal  are  hastening.  And  so  our  latest 
physical  speculations,  call  them  flights  of  the 
scientific  imagination  if  you  please,  sent  out 
to  search  over  the  depths  for  the  everlasting 
hills,  bring  back  upon  their  wings  the  perfume 
of  far-off  lands,  and  some  fresh  signs  of  the 
rest  that  shall  remain  after  the  flood  of  the 
years  shall  have  passed  away. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    PROCESS    OF    THE    RESURRECTION,    AND   THE 
END. 

We  have  to  complete  our  review  of  old 
faiths  in  the  new  light  of  the  scientific  truth 
of  development,  by  bringing  under  this  mod- 
ern method  of  thought  that  belief  in  the  re- 
surrection which  lies  at  the  foundatioD  of  his- 
torical Christianity,  but  with  regard  to  which 
many  believers  at  the  present  time  have  neither 
definite  nor  satisfactory  ideas,  and  which,  in 
the  form  in  which  it  is  popularly  held,  is 
often  ridiculed  by  unbelievers  as  the  reduction 
to  the  absurd  of  Christian  faith. 

The  resurrection  of  Jesus  was  to  the  disci- 
ples both  a  fact  and  a  revelation.  The  fact 
may  not  have  been  wholly  a  smprise  to  them ; 
but  the  revelation  was  unexpected.  They 
were  not  unfamiliar  with  the  belief  that  the 
dead  might  be  brought  back  to  life  by  the 
power  of  God.  As  they  remembered  Jesus' 
miracles,  and  thought  of  his  mystic  words  con- 
cerning the  Son  of  man,  they  may  have  hoped 
that  he  would  come  forth  on  the  third  day 
from  the  grave,  and  return  to  his  accustomed 


350  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

life,  to  walk  witli  tliem  again  the  familiar 
paths,  and  to  tarry  in  the  home  at  Bethany  as 
the  benignant  friend  of  old.  But  they  were 
amazed  and  affrighted  •  at  his  appearance. 
Mary  did  not  touch  him ;  Thomas  did  not  put 
his  finger  into  the  print  of  the  nails ;  the  be- 
loved disciple  leaned  no  more  upon  his  bosom ; 
a  strange  awe  fell  over  them  as  he  appeared 
in  their  midst  when  the  doors  were  shut,  and 
then  vanished  from  their  sight.  Jesus  did 
not  rise,  as  they  tell  us  Lazarus  came  forth — 
the  manner  of  his  appearance  was  a  wonder 
and  mysteiy  to  them.  Jesus'  resurrection,  in 
short,  was  a  reveh^tion  to  the  disciples  of  pos- 
sibilities of  spiritual  life,  which  they  had  lit- 
tle dreamed  of  before. 

The  new  revelation  which  took  the  disciples 
by  surprise,  we  may  not,  however,  forget,  had 
a  firm,  historical  basis  in  a  new  fact  of  their 
experience.  We  cannot  cut  the  Gospels  loose 
from  their  historical  basis,  and  hope  to  retain 
long  the  ideal  beauty  and  truth  of  Christian- 
ity. We  cannot  keep  fresh  long  a  flower 
broken  from  its  stem  ;  we  must  have  the  root 
implanted  in  the  earth  before  we  can  have  the 
fragrance  in  the  air.  Christianity,  broken  off 
from  its  historical  growth,  and  uptorn  from 
its  firm  basis  in  the  historical  facts  of  tlie 
Gospels,  would  be  in  our  hands  little  better 
than  a  cut  flower — it  ^vould  soon  fade  and  be 


THE  FACT  OF    THE  RESURRECTION.    351 

thrown  away  for  another.  All  that  is  ideal, 
beautiful,  and  refreshing  in  Christianity  rests 
upon  historical  grounds,  and  is  secured  in  the 
ineradicable  truth  of  a  divinely  human  history. 
Its  preparatory  law  and  morality  were,  as  we 
have  seen,  worked  out  through  the  history  of 
a  chosen  people.  Its  Gospel  came  through  a 
Divine  life  with  man.  Its  Christ  was  not 
first  a  dogma,  but  a  fact.  Its  supreme  faith 
is  trust,  not  first  in  a  truth,  but  in  a  Person — 
a  real,  yet  ideal  Person.  Its  transforming 
hope  was  gained,  not  by  reasoning,  but  by 
the  sight  of  an  open  tomb,  and  the  appear- 
ance of  the  risen  Friend. 

Of  the  direct  historical  evidences  of  the  fact 
of  the  resurrection  little  that  is  new  remains 
to  be  said.  The  progress  of  critical  inquiry, 
we  may  remark  in  passing,  renders  it  apparent 
with  increasing  clearness  that  any  attempt,  to 
destroy  the  histoi'ical  genuineness  of  the  New 
Testament  narratives,  and  at  the  same  time 
not  to  make  the  disciples  spurious  men,  and  to 
cast  a  dark  shadow  of  reproach  upon  the  sin- 
cerity of  Jesus  himself,  is  impossible.  Enough 
of  the  New  Testament  writings,  on  the  most 
unfavorable,  credible  hypothesis,  must  be  ad- 
mitted to  have  been  started  on  their  course  of 
deceiving  the  world — if  deception  it  be — before 
the  beginning  of  the  second  century,  to  compel 
us  to  hold  apostolic  men  responsible  for  the 


35^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

impression  they  have  made  upon  the  world. 
Critical  ingenuity  can  hardly  invent  a  way  of 
avoiding  the  facts  of  the  New  Testament  nar- 
ratives without  sooner  or  later  running  squarely 
against  the  moral  character  of  the  apostles. 
They  had  no  business,  so  late  in  the  day  as 
the  first  century,  to  deceive  themselves  with 
an  "  execrable  superstition,"  as  the  Roman  his- 
torian calls  Christianity ;  and  still  less  to  im- 
pose at  the  risk  of  their  lives,  and  by  the  loss 
of  all  things,  an  immense  practical  deception 
upon  mankind.  If  they  have  imposed  upon 
us  old  wives'  fablos  for  facts,  then  Judas  Is- 
cariot  really  deserves  the  gratitude  of  the 
world,  and  the  eleven  were  the  real  traitors  to 
all  that  is  sacred  in  humanity.  It  may  be 
said  that  the  Apostle  Paul  lived  in  a  credulous 
age,  but  he  had  ample  opportunity  and  time 
to  investigate  the  facts  reported  among  the 
disciples  whom  he  persecuted;  and  all  the 
prejudices  of  his  education,  and  his  own  per- 
sonal reputation  were  at  stake,  and  would  have 
compelled  him,  if  he  were  a  true  man,  to  sift 
the  evidence  thoroughly,  and  to  prevent  a 
great  religious  fraud  upon  humanity.  There 
is  no  reason  or  excuse  for  his  becoming  a  victim 
to  a  deception.  We  gain  nothing  by  trans- 
j)lanting  the  miraculous  from  the  working  of 
Jesus  to  the  minds  and  the  habits  of  the 
apostles.     In  its  proper  |)lace  the  miraculous 


CIRCUMSTANTIAL   EVIDENCES.  Z'SZ 

may  be  natural;  but  it  is  utterly  unnatural 
and  incredible  when  transferred  to  the  conduct 
of  common,  sensible  men  like  the  disciples. 
Thus  scepticism  of  historical  Christianity  has 
upon  its  hands  a  double  difficulty.  It  must 
first  prove  that  the  disciples  acted  unnaturally, 
and  then  it  must  disprove  their  moral  sense, 
which   belies  the    allesred   untruthfulness   of 

o 

their  conduct. 

But,  not  to  delay  longer  with  the  direct  his- 
torical evidences,  upon  w^hich  so  much  has  re- 
cently been  written,  we  would  notice  the  large 
amount  of  indirect  historical  testimony,  of  cu- 
mulative, circumstantial  evidence,  which  can- 
not easily  be  set  aside.  Something  happened 
in  Judea  which  has  chansred  the  world. 
Something  happened  on  the  morning  of  the 
third  day  which  has  made  it  a  new  world  for 
mankind.  Something  took  place  which 
changed  this  earth,  and  the  whole  aspect  of 
life  and  death,  to  the  eyes  of  the  disciples. 
Somethino^  occurred  which  turned  mournins^ 
into  joy,  despair  into  courage,  darkness  into 
day.  All  things  were  become  new  to  them ; — 
over  hillside  and  valley,  along  the  way  to  Em- 
maus,  over  the  beach  of  Galilee,  and  the  slopes 
of  Olivet,  a  new,  unearthly  light  was  shed, 
and  the  earth  lay  before  them  transfigured 
with  a  new  hope,  and  the  brightest  spots  in  it 
were  those  where  but  yesterday  the  deepest 


354  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

shadows  rested — its  places  of  burial.  Some- 
thing haj)peued  upon  the  morning  of  the  third 
day  which  changed  the  most  sacred  associ- 
ations of  a  large  company  of  men,  and  the  re- 
ligious habits  which  had  grown  with  their 
growth  from  childhood. 

A  wonderful  revolution  was  wrought  in  the 
transference  of  the  sanctity  of  their  Sabbath 
to  the  Lord's  day.  The  Christian  Sunday  is 
still  the  great  circumstantial  proof  of  the  res- 
urrection upon  the  first  day  of  the  week. 
What  teaching  could  change  our  day  of  wor- 
ship, a  day  hallowed  from  childhood,  and  made 
sacred  by  the  traditions  of  our  fathers  ?  Yet 
something  happened  in  Judea  on  that  first  day 
of  the  week  which  naturally,  spontaneously, 
without  conflict,  and  without  discussion^  so  read- 
ily that  hardly  a  trace  remains  of  the  process 
by  which  it  was  accomplished,  did  change  the 
whole  religious  habit  and  the  most  sacred  as- 
sociations of  Jews  exceedingly  tenacious  of  the 
old  traditions.  There  is  nothing  accidental  in 
history — the  light  which  put  the  glory  of  the 
Sabbath  into  the  shade  was  the  glory  of  the 
risen  Lord. 

Something  happened  then  and  there  which 
has  chant^ed  this  world  to  all  succeedinir  cren- 
erations.  Something  wonderful  and  re-crea- 
tive in  its  power  took  place  upon  that  Easter 
morning,   the  enduring  results  of  -which    are 


CIRCUMSTANTIAL   EVIDENCES.  355 

Christian  homes  and  morals,  Christian  society 
and  culture,  Christian  laws  and  liberties. 
When  one  stands  by  the  ocean,  and  watches 
the  great  waves  charging  against  the  rocks,  he 
knows  that  somewhere  far  out  at  sea  the  winds 
must  have  descended,  and  swept  over  the 
depths,  though  not  a  breath  of  air  may  be 
astir  in  the  tree-top  overhanging  the  clifP.  So 
in  human  history  every  mighty  movement 
which  breaks  upon  our  shores  must  have  had 
a  cause,  far  away  perhaps,  whose  effects  we 
see.  If,  Avhile  we  are  watching  the  waves,  a 
log-book  should  be  washed  ashore,  and  we 
should  read  from  it  an  account  of  the  descent 
of  a  mighty  wind  upon  the  face  of  the  deej^ 
then  we  should  know  for  a  certaintv,  thouo^h 
it  might  be  calm  within  our  horizon,  that  there 
had  been  a  storm  at  sea.  Floated  down  upon 
this  mighty  tide  of  Chi'istian  history,  we  find 
the  records  written  by  men  who  lived  when 
the  power  of  God  swept  over  human  society, 
and  stirred  it  to  its  depths — this  is  the  direct 
evidence, — and  we  have,  also,  the  movements 
of  thought  and  life  still  breaking  upon  our 
shores — we  have  the  great  tide,  and  the  waves 
themselves — as  the  present  evidence  of  the  de- 
scent of  a  higher  power  somewhere  in  human 
history.  Deny  the  records ;  say  they  were 
thrown  into  the  history  as  a  hoax ;  but  you 
are  met  by  the  advancing  Avave,  and  that  is  no 


35^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

deception  !  Deny  tlie  Grospels  ;  but  the  history 
itself  confronts  us ;  is  its  own  evidence  ;  tells 
its  own  story  of  something  supernatural,  of 
the  moving  upon  the  hopeless  waste  of  the 
Spirit  of  God.  Something  happened  over 
eighteen  centuries  ago  in  Judea,  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  third  day,  ^vhich  has  changed 
the  whole  current  and  flow  of  history  ; — men's 
lives,  their  homes,  the  rights  of  children,  the 
lot  of  slaves,  the  position  of  woman,  the  whole 
order  of  society,  all  things  human  are  taken 
up  into,  and  swept  along  by,  a  new,  resistless 
movement,  which  still  bears  upon  the  crest  of 
its  advancing  wave  the  hope  of  the  world's 
future. 

Doubt,  however,  of  the  fact  of  Jesus'  resur- 
rection does  not  usually  sj)ring  in  the  first 
instance  from  the  discovery  of  defects  in  the 
historical  evidence,  direct  or  circumstantial, 
but  from  the  fact  that  it  lies  beyond  our  experi- 
ence, and  from  the  difficulty  of  conceiving  of 
it.  We  turn  then  to  the  revelation  of  the  na- 
ture of  the  resurrection  made  by  the  appear- 
ances of  Jesus  to  the  disciples.  Onr  final  ques- 
tion shapes  itself  accordingly,  after  this  man- 
ner : — Is  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  resur- 
rection, as  that  doctrine  was  revealed  and  il- 
lustrated in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  in  ac- 
cordance, or  not,  with  all  that  we  have  already 
observed  and   can  know  of  the  processes    by 


JESUS'  RESURRECTION  A  REVELATION.    2>57 

Avliich  God  is  working  out  the  purposes  of 
creative  love,  and,  therefore,  in  the  truest  and 
broadest  sense,  most  natural  and  credible  ? 

First,  then,  we  have  to  follow  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus  as  it  took  place  before  the  disci- 
ples. He  lay  until  the  morning  of  the  third 
day  in  the  sepulchre,  long  enough  to  give  the 
body  over  to  the  ordinary  course  of  nature. 
But  God  did  not  suffer  his  Holy  One  to  see 
corruption.  Miraculously  and,  as  we  believe, 
for  our  sakes,  the  process  of  the  resurrection 
with  Jesus  was  shortened,  or  rendered  excep- 
tional in  its  mode,  and  made  to  take  place 
partly  in  a  visible  manner  before  the  disci- 
ples. The  stone  was  rolled  away,  and  Jesus 
rises,  but  no  more  as  a  mortal  belonging  still 
wholly  to  this  world.  He  has  not  come  back 
to  life,  like  Lazarus,  to  be  borne  some  day  a 
second  time  to  his  burial.  Already  when  he 
leaves  the  tomb  he  belongs  partly  to  the  other 
world,  to  the  Unseen  Universe.  He  appears 
first  to  Mary.  She  thousrht  him  to  be  the 
gardener — his  appearance  was  at  the  first 
glance  like  that  of  a  mortal  man ; — the  next 
moment,  as  is  to  be  inferred  from  the  best  in- 
terpretation of  Jesus'  answer,"^  she  sees  some- 
thing unearthly  in  his  appearance,  and  takes 
him  to  be  a  spirit.     Jesus,  having  just  left  the 


See  Meyer  Com. ,  in  loco. 


35^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

sepulchre,  begins  already  to  be  transformed. 
He  is  of  this  world  still,  yet  not  wholly  of 
this  world.  There  is  something  about  him  as 
he  aj^pears  and  disappears  which  impresses 
the  disciples  with  a  new  sense  of  his  super- 
human nature.  He  is  the  same  Jesus,  yet  uot 
the  same.  The  semblance  of  something  differ- 
ent, something  more  celestial  and  divine, 
shines  from  his  face,  and  at  times  they  take 
him  to  be  a  spirit.  He  appears  on  several  oc- 
casions while  the  marvellous  transformation  is 
taking  place.  One  who  doubted,  sees  the 
marks  of  the  nails ;  but  something  prevents 
him  from  reaching:  forth  his  hand  and  touch- 
ing  his  side.  Jesus  moves,  as  it  would  seem, 
along  the  borders  of  two  worlds,  now  becom- 
ing visible,  now  vanishing  from  sight,  partly 
under  the  laws  still  of  the  lower  kingdom, 
partly  possessing  already  the  liberty  of  the 
higher  life.  There  are  indications,  also,  or 
hints,  that,  as  the  time  of  his  final  disappear- 
ance into  the  Unseen  drew  near,  he  belonged 
less  and  less  to  the  earthly,  and  more  and 
more  was  transformed  into  the  glory  of  the 
celestial.  Thus,  upon  one  of  his  first  appear- 
ances he  asked,  "  Have  ye  here  any  meat  ?  " 
and  he  ate  with  the  eleven ;  but  later  he  gave 
to  the  disciples  bread,  and  the  fish  which  he 
took  from  the  fire  of  coals  ;  but  it  is  not  said 
that  he  partook  of  them  himself.     And  when 


JESUS'  RESURRECTION  A  REVELATION.    359 

the  disciples,  through  the  morning  mists,  saw 
One  standing  on  the  beach  of  the  sea  of  Gali- 
lee, it  Avas  not  first  Peter  s  eagle  eye,  but 
John's  intuition  of  love  which  assured  them, 
"It  is  the  Lord."  Was  it  more  difficult  for 
the  disciples  to  recognize  the  man  Jesus,  the 
old  time  Friend,  in  his  successive  appearances  ? 
In  a  still  later  manifestation  of  himself  on  the 
mountain  which  he  had  appointed  in  Galilee, 
we  read,  "They  worshiped  him;  but  some 
doubted."  Already  Avas  He  so  far  exalted,  so 
distant  from  the  touch  of  the  disciples,  of  ap- 
pearance so  spiritual,  and  transcendent,  thafc 
some  could  doubt,  while  others  ^vorshiped  ?  ^ 
Very  significant  in  this  respect  are  the  brief 
narratives  of  the  Ascension,  in  which  after 
forty  days  his  resurrection  was  completed. 
He  leads  the  disciples  out  to  i^ethany; — the 
narrative  relates  no  simple  human  word  or 
friendly  incident  such  as  at  other  limes  had 
made  the  way  to  Bethany  sacred  to  the  mem- 
ory of  the  man  Jesus ; — He  speaks  now  of  the 
gr€at  things  of  his  kingdom,  and  his  Gospel 
for  the  whole  world.  Jesus  is  now  a  superior 
Being,  almost  supersensible,  a  heavenly  Pres- 


*  Meyer  (Com.  in  loco)  supposes  as  the  reason  for  the  doubt 
"an  alteration  in  his  bodily  appearance,"  "  a  mysterious  change 
of  his  whole  appearance,  a  middle  condition  between  the  bodily 
nature  as  it  was  before,  and  the  glorification  which  took  place  at 
the  moment  of  the  ascension." 


3^0  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

ence  for  the  last  time  visible  to  mortal  sense  ; 
and,  *'It  came  to  pass  while  he  blessed  them" 
— speaking  not  now  words  of  human  sympathy 
as  before  the  crucifixion,  but  as  a  Divine 
Friend,  with  a  more  than  human  accent,  bless- 
ing them — "  he  was  parted  from  them  and  car- 
ried up  into  heav^en  !  "  The  transformation  is 
over.  The  resurrection  is  finished  in  the  as- 
cension. The  dust  is  committed  to  dust ;  the 
perishable  is  laid  aside ;  the  flesh  which  in  him 
saw  no  corruption,  but  which  cannot  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  is  given  up  to  the  ele- 
ments of  nature — the  last  particle  of  earth- 
liness  left  to  this  ^vorld's  gravitation — as  he 
ascends,  vanishing  forever  from  sight  as  the 
glory  of  the  celestial  is  given  him ; — and  the 
disciples  return  to  their  homes  knowing  that 
he  who  had  left  the  tomb  and  appeared  to 
them  as  the  same  Jesus,  yet  changed,  is  now 
parted  from  them,  and,  like  a  cloud  vanishing 
in  the  evening  light,  he  had  been  received  from 
their  sight. 

The  resurrection  of  Jesus,  then,  was  the 
divinely  appointed  process  by  which  his  holy 
life  chanired  the  terrestrial  for  the  celestial, 
and,  in  an  exceptional  manner,  without  un- 
dergoing the  process  of  corruption,  j)assed 
from  the  seen  to  the  Unseen.  It  was  a  new 
revelation  of  the  possibilities  of  spiritual  and 
glorified    embodiment.     And    the    miraculous 


JESUS'  RESURRECTION  A  REVELATION,    36 1 

element  of  it  was  not  so  much  tlie  fact  that  he 
rose  from  the  dead  (for  that  we  hold  to  be  a 
part  of  the  appointed  order  of  nature),  but 
the  manner  in  which  his  resurrection  was  ac- 
complished, and  made  a  representation  to  man 
of  the  great  divine  law  of  the  resurrection. 
It  was  a  miraculous  representation,  a  divine 
illustration,  a  picturing  before  the  eyes  of  dis- 
ciples, of  the  general  resurrection.  It  was  an 
illustration  which  no  man  could  invent,  but 
which  it  has  pleased  God  to  give,  of  the  end 
of  mortality,  and  the  final  transformation  into 
the  spiritual  body.  Nothing  else  adequately 
illustrates  the  resurrection  but  this  o^reat  his- 
torical  object-lesson,  as  it  were,  and  foreshad- 
owing of  it,  which  the  disciples  ])eheld  who 
found  the  tomb  empty  and  saw  Jesus  appear 
and  disappear,  and  at  last  ascend  into  heaven. 
As  nothing  else,  the  transformation  of  Jesus 
from  this  material  body  into  the  spiritual,  his 
passage  through  the  grave,  and  partly  within 
sight  of  the  disciples,  into  the  glory  that  ex- 
celleth,  brings  life  and  immortality  to  light. 
For,  observe  further  how  the  revelation  of  the 
resurrection,  made  through  Jesus'  appearance 
and  final  parting  from  the  disciples,  entered 
into  the  apostolic  doctrine,  and  became  the 
hope  which  has  been  cherished  ever  since  in 
the  heart  of  the  Church. 

Without  burdening  our  pages  with  critical 

IG 


362  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

discussions  of  particular  texts,  we  may  specify 
the  following  elementary  truths,  or  essential 
parts,  of  the  docti'ine  of  the  resurrection,  which 
tlie  apostles  gained  from  their  experience  of 
the  risen  Lord. 

In  the  great  resurrection  chapter,  the  Apos- 
tle to  the  Corinthians  has  made  the  discovery 
that  the  resurrection  is  not  unnatural,  but  in 
accordance  with  the  very  intention  of  the 
creation.  It  is  a  moment,  or  part,  of  that 
grand  order,  and  comprehensive  piocess,  by 
which  the  earthly  order  shall  pass  into  the 
heavenly,  and  the  whole  creation  be  redeemed 
from  the  bondage  of  corruption.  There  are 
two  orders,  the  natural  and  the  spiritual ;  they 
are  not  unrelated  ;  there  is  a  divinely  appointed 
succession,  or  progress,  from  the  one  to  the 
other;  and  death  and  the  resurrection  have 
their  place  and  purpose  in  the  whole  divine 
economy  whose  end  is  eternal  life.  The  chosen 
metaphor  for  the  marvellous  change  and  per^ 
f ection  of  the  earthly  is  the  growth  of  the  seed 
into  the  green  blade  and  the  full-grown  ear. 
It  is  important  not  to  lose  this  primary 
truth  of  the  scriptural  doctrine  that  the  resur- 
rection is  according  to  law.  It  is  prepared 
for  in  the  very  make  of  the  creation,  in  the 
whole  order  of  things  No  green  blade  from 
the  Ijuried  seed,  no  ripened  grain  in  the  ear,  is 
more  natural. 


THE  APOSTOLIC  DOCTRINE.  Z^Z 

Two  elements  of  this  most  natural  process  of 
resurrection  are  brought  out  into  light,  and  up- 
on these  two  elementary  truths  the  whole  em- 
phasis of  the  apostolic  doctrine  is  made  to  rest. 

1.  The  first  truth  is  that  our  present  em- 
bodiment has  some  real  relation  to,  some  pre- 
paratory significance  for,  our  future  embodi- 
ment. The  one  is  the  first  step  in  a  process  of 
embodiment  which  shall  be  completed  in  the 
other.  The  future  life  shall  conserve  and 
carry  out  the  present  life,  not  only  mentally 
and  spiritually,  but  also  physically,  or  as  an 
embodied  life.  The  spiritual  body  shall  be  the 
end  of  God's  way  through  nature  to  a  glorified 
creation.  The  present  body,  therefore,  has 
value  in  this  preparative  dispensation  of  nature. 
It  is  not  to  be  despised.  It  has  worth  in  God's 
plan,  and  exists  now  for  the  sake  of  the  higher 
order,  for  the  glory  of  the  celestial  which 
shall  be.  Its  lifelong  history,  its  birth,  its 
growth,  its  training,  its  sufferings,  its  death, 
all  are  not  causeless,  nor  out  of  the  divine  order  ; 
but  they  have,  as  everything  earthly  has,  a 
preparatory  and  prophetic  worth  ;  and  they 
are  now  for  the  perfect  life  which  shall  be, 
when  the  whole  creation  shall  be  redeemed. 
This  truth  of  the  physical  conservation  of  life 
in  the  world  to  come,  and  the  organic  relation 
of  the  body  which  now  is  to  the  body  which 
shall  be,  is  plainly  taught  in  the  apostolic  Ian- 


3^4  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

giiage  concerning  the  resurrection.  The  reve- 
lation of  Jesus'  resurrection  was  to  the  disciples 
the  pledge  of  full,  rounded,  complete  personal 
existence  after  death.  The  next  life  is,  in 
every  thread  of  it,  continuous  with  this ;  and 
the  whole  life  passes  on  into  the  glory  of  the 
celestial. 

2.  The  other  truth  concerning  the  resurrec- 
tion body,  which  the  Sadducees  never  under- 
stood, but  which  the  apostle  who  preached 
Jesus  and  the  resurrection  has  learned  as  a 
first  truth  of  his  hope,  is  this.  The  body 
which  shall  be  is  not  fashioned  of  matter  of 
the  same  kind  as  these  earthly  bodies.  It  is 
not  to  be  woven  of  perishable  stuff.  It  is  not 
of  the  earth  earthy.  Flesh  and  blood,  Paul 
says  expressly,  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of 
God.  The  Lord  who  left  the  tomb  entered 
heaven  in  the  glory  of  the  celestial  body.  We 
shall  be  changed.  There  is  a  real  connection, 
or  some  correlation,  between  the  present  and 
the  future  embodiment,  but  not  identity  of 
substance.  The  life,  the  principle  of  life,  the 
individuality  of  it,  shall  remain  unbroken ;  but 
the  matter  of  life,  as  the  physiologists  say, 
shall  be  changed.  We  commit  dust  to  dust. 
The  earthliness  in  which  the  seed  is  buried 
does  not  appear  in  the  flcnver.  The  glory  of 
the  terrestrial  is  one,  the  glory  of  the  celestial 
is  another.     There  is  in  the  soul  the  necessity 


THE  APOSTOLIC  DOCTRINE.  Z^S 

for  embodiment.  The  Creator  has  linked  its 
life  with  the  elements  of  his  creation.  We 
shall  be  clothed  upon,  says  the  apostle ;  we 
shall  not  be  found  naked.  The  soul,  in  the 
final  redemption  of  the  creation,  shall  assimilate 
for  its  form  and  beauty  the  matter  of  the  un- 
seen universe  ;  and  possibly,  we  may  already 
have  connected  with  this  mortality  the  rudi- 
ments, the  forming  principle  or  germ,  of  this 
future  embodiment.  Certain  passages  of  the 
Scriptures  seem  to  indicate  that  tlie  conditions 
for  the  full  development  of  the  spiritual  body 
shall  be  given  only  when  the  wliole  visible 
economy  shall  pass  in  fulfilment  away ;  that 
the  saints  wait  in  blissful  expectancy,  until  tlie 
consummation  of  this  world-age,  for  the  highest 
possible  perfection  of  heavenly  life ;  that  the 
harvest  is  the  end  of  the  world.  But  here  we 
look  into  the  distant  horizons  of  revelation, 
and  the  light  is  too  diffused  along  the  far 
horizon  for  distinct  vision.  The  two  points 
already  indicated  are,  hoAvever,  brought  within 
our  reach  by  the  representation  of  the  resur- 
rection made  by  the  risen  and  ascended  Lord ; 
and,  as  we  have  seen,  they  were  firmly  grasped 
in  the  apostolic  doctrine.  Upon  these  two 
points,  therefore — the  connection  and  the  differ- 
ence of  substance  between  the  present  and  the 
future  embodiment — our  whole  statement  of 
the   doctrine   should  be  made  to  depend.     If 


o 


6^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 


between  these  two  fixed  points,  which  are 
lifted  up  into  the  light  by  revelation,  we 
stretch  all  our  theories  ;  if  around  them  all  our 
imaginations  of  the  future  life  gather,  we  shall 
not  find  the  substance  of  the  hope  of  the  resur- 
rection floating  off  into  the  empty  air,  nor,  on 
the  other  hand,  shall  we  see  the  doctrine  low- 
ered and  dragged  amid  the  grossest  conceptions, 
until  torn  to  shreds  upon  the  hard  edges  of 
scientific  facts.  A  life  in  all  essential  energies 
continuous  with  the  present,  yet  transformed, 
and  passing  into  a  higher  order, — that  is  the 
essence  of  the  hope  for  w^hich  the  biblical  doc- 
trine of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  still 
stands  as  the  faith  of  the  Church  of  the  risen 
Lord.  This  mysterious  cord  of  life,  whose 
beginnings  reach  beyond  our  sight  until  it  is 
bound  to  the  throne  of  the  living  God ;  this 
marvellously  braided  cord  of  life,  plaited  of 
many  threads — matter,  mind,  spirit,  fibres  of 
nerve,  and  lines  of  sensation  too  subtle  to  be 
unraveled,  being  all  bound  up  together  in  it — 
a  life  here  often  strangely  knotted  and  tangled  ; 
— this  wonderfully  woven  life  of  ours  shall  not 
be  broken  by  death  in  a  single  strand  of  it ;  it 
shall  run  on  and  on,  an  unbroken  life,  upheld 
by  the  will  of  the  Eternal.  Death  cannot 
break  it,  but  it  shall  change  it.  It  shall  draw 
from  it  all  perishable  dross.  While  the  life 
remains  the  same,  some  elements  of  which  its 


CORRUPTION    OF   THE  DOCTRINE.       Z^7 

strands  are  woven  shall  be  changed  ; — instead 
of  the  silver  cord  shall  be  the  thread  of  gold ; 
for  the  corruptible  shall  be  the  incorruptible ; 
and  there  shall  be  no  more  entanglement  and 
imperfection,  no  more  strain  upon  any  strand 
of  it ;  the  flesh  shall  not  chafe  against  the 
spirit,  nor  the  spirit  against  the  flesh, — but 
there  shall  be  at  last  the  one  perfectly  accord- 
ed, incorruptible,  and  beautiful  life. 

Is  it  necessary  for  any  one  at  this  late  day 
to  spend  time  in  clearing  the  simplicity  of  the 
biblical  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead  from  the  cumbersome  additions  of  the 
traditional  teachins^  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
flesh  %  In  this  doctrine,  as  in  others,  the  work 
of  restoration  has  been  for  some  time  going 
on  even  under  the  most  cautious  orthodox 
hands ; — after  tearing  away  the  elaborate  re- 
constructions and  "  improvements "  of  later 
styles  of  theological  architecture,  after  remov- 
ing the  colors  laid  upon  colors  with  which 
clumsy  hands  have  sought  to  retouch  and  to 
preserve  the  divine  original,  we  are  beginning 
to  see  come  forth  again  the  simple  naturalness 
and  the  inimitable  beauty  of  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  and  his  disciples.  In  an  article,  how- 
ever, in  Smith's  Bible  Dictionary — upon  whose 
authority  our  clergy  and  intelligent  laity 
justly  lean  as  a  work  well  up  to  the  demands 
of  sober  modern   scholarship — we   notice,  to 


3^^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

our  surprise,  that  the  simple  essentials  of  the 
apostolic  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  are  still 
burdened  with  reasonings  concerning  the  pos- 
sibilities of  the  resurrection  of  these  same 
bodies,  which  remind  one  of  the  ingenious 
speculations  of  Athenagoras  of  old,  who  with 
equal  subtlety  endeavored  to  show  how  mor- 
tal flesh  can  be  preserved  for  immortal  uses. 
It  should  teach  us  caution  in  our  approach  to 
this  glorious  mystery  of  revelation,  that  our 
familiar  traditional  phrases,  "  resurrection  of 
the  body,"  "  i-esurrection  of  the  flesh,"  are  not 
the  biblical  expressions,  "the  resurrection  of 
the  dead,"  or  "  the  resurrection  from  the  dead." 
The  heavenly  light  entered  an  atmosphere 
heavy  with  earthly  emanations,  and  in  the 
lingering  Judaism  of  the  early  Church  many 
a  truth  was  broken  and  refracted.  So  it  hap- 
pened with  the  pure  hope  of  the  second  com- 
ing, or  presence,  of  Christ ;  and  the  revelation 
of  the  last  things,  in  the  same  gross  atmos- 
phere, could  hardly  escape  distortion  and  cor- 
ruption. The  wonder  is  that  the  light  of  the 
Gospel  shone  so  brightly  and  so  clearly  as  it 
did  over  the  troubled  horizon  of  the  second 
century,  down  through  an  age  when  all  the 
winds  of  agitation  seemed  to  be  let  loose,  and 
mists  and  clouds  and  currents  from  every  quar- 
ter of  the  known  world  seemed  to  meet  and 
gather.     It  is  not   surprising,  therefore,  that 


CORRUPTION   OF    THE  DOCTRINE.        3^9 

au  expression  wliicli  never  fell  from  the  tongue 
of  the  inspired  preacher  of  the  resurrection 
should  have  trembled  upon  the  lips  of  early 
confessors  and  martyrs,  and  have  become  a 
part  of  one  of  the  most  ancient  creeds  of  the 
church.* 

The  needless  burdening  of  the  apostolic 
teaching  with  the  conception  of  the  literal 
resurrection  of  the  flesh  was  not  left  without 
opposition  in  the  early  Church.  Origen  called 
it  the  foolishness  of  beggarly  minds. f  In 
seeking,  however,  to  avoid  the  unapostolic 
blunder  of  preaching  the  literal  resurrection 
of  the  flesh,  Origen  and  the  Alexandrian 
school  hardly  escaped  the  opposite  danger  of 
an  allegorizing  and  idealistic  interpretation. 
The  materialistic  view  of  the  resurrection 
became  the  prevalent  scholastic  view,  and 
still  lingers,  as  we  have  just  observed — really 
cast  out,  but  not  yet  laid— in  modern  theology. 
Our  science  leaves  us  no  tenable  support  for 
it.  Any  proper  physiological  conception  of 
the  human  body  precludes  it.     For  the  matter 


*  The  phrase  eapKos  aviaraaiv  occurs  in  what  is  now  thought  to 
be  the  original  of  the  "  Old  Roman  Creed,"  and  to  have  been  in 
use  at  Rome  prior  to  A.  d,  140.  The  necessity  of  meeting  de- 
cisively the  Gnostic  Docetism  and  contempt  of  the  body  may  have 
been  the  occasion  for  the  substitution  of  this  phrase  for  the  New 
Testament  forms  ;  one  extreme  in  theology  thus  giving  birth  to 
another. 

t  Op.  II.  532-36. 
16* 


37^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

of  life  is  always  changing.  The  form  only  is 
identical,  not  the  flesh.  Lotze's  apt  compari- 
son of  the  body  to  a  ripple  around  some  hid- 
den stone  in  a  stream  is  physiologically  true. 
We  see  day  after  day  the  same  ripple  on  the 
stream,  the  same  wave-form,  produced  by  the 
same  cause,  but  the  drops  of  the  water  are 
always  changing  ; — matter  is  in  perpetual 
flux ;  the  stream  of  existence  is  ever  flowing 
by ;  our  bodies  are  but  momentary  forms, 
never  the  same,  two  successive  seasons,  and 
destined  soon  to  pass  away.  Nor  does  the 
hypothesis  of  some  single,  indestructible,  mate- 
rial germ  of  the  immaterial  body  escape  the 
scientific  reduction  to  the  absurd.  Descartes 
thought  he  had  found  the  material  centre  of 
the  soul.  But  modern  physiology  has  dissi- 
pated the  dream  of  some  central  atom  through 
which  mind  is  united  to  matter,  and  which 
may  be  supposed  to  remain  after  death,  and 
the  dissolution  of  the  body,  as  the  indestructi- 
ble germ,  the  earthly  nucleus,  of  the  spiritual 
body.  The  more  thoroughly  the  convolutions 
of  the  brain  are  explored,  the  more  obvious 
does  it  become  that  there  is  no  physical  centre 
of  soul-life  ;  no  one  spot  to  which  all  lines  and 
fibres  of  its  marvelous  network  of  nerves  con- 
verge. The  brain,  physiologically  examined, 
has  not  proved  to  be  like  the  Hebrew  Temple, 
provided  with  an  inner  chamber,  a  mysterious 


UNTENABLE   CONCEPTIONS.  3/1 

holy  place,  for  the  dwelling-place  of  the  un- 
seen spirit  that  is  in  man.  Matter,  so  far  as 
we  can  have  any  knowledge  of  it,  nowhere,  at  no 
one  point,  at  no  single  moment  of  its  perpetual 
motion,  becomes  the  inalienable  personal  prop- 
erty of  man.  Like  the  woman  mentioned  in 
the  Bible  who  had  had  seven  husbands,  so,  it 
has  been  said,  the  same  matter  may  belong  in 
succession  to  several  lives,  for  they  all  had  it ; 
and,  like  the  Sadducees,  we  greatly  err  if  we 
do  not  know  Jesus'  own  Scripture  that  in  the 
resurrection  we  shall  be  as  the  angels  of  God. 
The  power  of  God,  Avhich  in  the  larger  course 
of  nature  may  have  already  provided  for  the 
new  heaven  and  the  new  earth,  and  the  change 
of  this  mortality  into  the  glory  of  the  celes- 
tial, does  not  need  for  our  future  embodiment, 
to  work  a  miracle  asrainst  the  constitution  of 
this  lower  half,  and  temporary  order,  of  nature. 
We  need  to  have  no  atom  laid  aside  and  held 
fast  for  our  use  in  the  higher  sphere ; — let 
nature  flow  on  in  us  and  through  us,  from 
generation  to  generation,  until  this  world-age 
shall  be  over.  Why  should  God  lock  up  in 
the  perishable  earth  a  single  particle  of  dust 
for  our  immortal  inheritance?  It  is  enough 
that  he  has  so  connected  the  mortal  and  the 
immortal,  and  created  the  two  kinds  of  exis- 
tence in  such  organic  relationship,  that  the 
natural  is  the  preparation  for  the   spiritual; 


ZT^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

that  the  image  of  the  heavenly  which  we  shall 
bear  is  the  fulfilment  of  the  earthy  which  we 
shall  lay  aside;  that  in  some  natural  way, 
according,  that  is,  to  the  whole  nature  of 
things,  though  beyond  our  knowledge — for 
we  know  now  only  in  part,  only  the  half  of 
the  nature  of  things — the  body  which  shall  be, 
shall  conserve  and  glorify  the  forces,  and  in- 
dividuality, and  form,  of  the  body  which  now 
is.     The  person  shall  rise  from  the  dead. 

We  should  notice  in  passing  that  this  view 
is  to  be  distinguished  from  the  Swedenborgian 
conception  of  the  loosening  and  escape,  at 
death,  of  the  spiritual  body.  The  spiritual 
beings  of  Swedenborg's  philosophy  still  belong 
to  this  present  visible  universe  ;  the  spiritual 
body,  in  the  Swedenborgian  conception  of  it, 
is  only  a  finer  efflorescence  of  matter,  and 
heaven  corresponds  to  earth.  The  biblical 
revelation  seems  to  us,  on  the  contrary,  to 
prophesy  a  great  advance  to  a  higher  order, 
and  to  inspire  the  hope  of  a  final  transforma- 
tion of  nature,  and  a  change  into  a  new  type 
or  mode  of  existence,  whose  advent  shall  com- 
plete the  whole  evolution  of  love's  creative 
and  self -imparting  purpose.  The  earthly  and 
the  mortal  are  the  heralds  and  emblems,  but 
not  the  correspondences,  of  that  which  is  to 
be  revealed ;  and,  like  the  apostle  of  old,  we 
know  not  what  we  shall  be.     Our  resurrection 


THE  RESURRECTION  A  DEVELOPMENT.     373 

shall  not  be,  as  we  read  the  signs  of  it,  simply 
a  setting  free  from  the  bonds  of  the  flesh  of  a 
finer  spiritualized  form,  which  belongs  still  to 
the  present  economy  of  nature;  but  it  shall 
be,  so  far  as  we  are  able  to  throw  over  our 
conception  the  lines  of  a  definition,  the  assimi- 
lation by  the  living  energy  or  soul  of  these 
bodies  (by  that  nature-side  of  us  which  makes 
some  embodiment  of  the  spirit  a  necessity  of 
the  creature)  of  the  material  of  the  unseen 
universe.  The  resurrection,  to  speak  of  it 
after  the  latest  scientific  fashion  of  speech, 
may  be  the  continuation  after  death  of  that 
process  of  differentiation  and  integration 
which  we  observe  going  on  up  to  the  death  of 
man.  It  may  be,  that  is,  a  further  differentia- 
tion, or  separation  of  the  organic  principle,  the 
soul-life,  from  gross  corruptible  matter  ;  and 
also  a  further  and  final  integration,  the  forma- 
tion of  a  new  and  hio^her  mode  of  existence, 
the  gathering,  around  the  vitalizing  principle, 
of  the  materials  of  a  more  spiritual  body  from 
tlie  heavenly  places. 

We  do  not  say  that  that  process  may  not 
even  now  be  going  on.  We  do  not  deny  that 
the  spiritual  body  may  be  embryonic,  or  rudi- 
mentary, in  the  physical  basis  of  this  present 
life.  We  do  not  say  when  the  process  of  its 
formation  shall  be  completed.  We  do  not 
know.     Eevelation  does  not  yield  distinct  out- 


374  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

lines  alono:  these  horizons.  We  look,  and 
wonder,  and  Avait.  We  may  only  say  that 
certain  Scriptures  seem  to  imply  that  the  ter- 
mination of  the  whole  present  course  of  na- 
ture, and  the  beginning  of  the  new  course, 
shall  be  necessary,  before  all  the  conditions  for 
this  full,  final,  and  perfect  spiritual  embodi- 
ment shall  be  furnished.  The  end  of  this 
world-age  may  be  an  object  of  joyous  antici- 
pation to  all  the  saints  who  are  with  the  Lord, 
expecting ;  and  the  end  of  the  world  may  add 
something  to  the  blessedness  of  all  the  gener- 
ations who  have  left  it.  It  was  but  forty  days 
between  Jesus'  resurrection  and  its  comple- 
tion in  his  ascension.  But  he  was  the  first- 
fruits  of  the  resurrection.  The  period  of 
transformation,  the  interval  of  happy  expect- 
ancy may,  in  our  case,  extend  from  the  day  of 
our  death  to  the  hour  when  the  last  trump 
shall  sound,  and  there  shall  be  a  general  res- 
urrection,— the  final  embodiment  of  all  souls 
according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body — the 
ascension  of  all  the  redeemed  into  the  glory  of 
the  spiritual  heavens  and  the  joy  of  their  Lord. 
We  have  given,  thus,  what  seem  to  us  to  be 
the  essential  truths  for  which  the  scriptural 
doctrine  of  the  resurrection  stands;  truths 
which  were  miraculously  represented  in  the 
appearance  of  Jesus  after  death,  and  his 
final  parting  from  his  disciples.     We  have  dis- 


NATURALNESS  OF  THE  RESURRECTION,  Zl"^ 

tinguished  this  view  from  fanciful  specula- 
tions concerning  a  present  spiritual  body,  and 
indicated  that  it  is  not  inconsistent  with  those 
passages  of  Scripture  which  seem  to  teach  a 
general  resurrection  at  the  end  of  the  world, 
at  the  harvest  of  this  whole  course  of  nature. 
It  remains  for  us  now  to  turn  again  to  our 
scientific  questionings,  and  to  ask  whether 
under  the  light  of  the  idea  of  development 
this  simple  biblical  doctrine  of  the  resurrec- 
tion can  be  put  to  confusion. 

We  hold  that  there  is  no  analogy  of  nature 
against  it ;  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  a 
conceivable  and  fittincr  termination  of  the 
whole  course  of  nature,  and  a  possible  and 
worthy  end  of  the  whole  struggle  and  ascent 
of  life ;  that  it  is  the  natural  fulfilment  of  the 
moral  purpose  which  runs  through  the  present 
evolution  of  nature,  and  the  normal  and  only 
perfect  conclusion  of  creative  love.  Our 
future  and  final  embodiment  is  not  the  manu- 
facture of  a  moment ;  for  God  works,  as  we 
have  seen,  through  age-long  processes,  and  the 
final  and  glorious  embodiment,  likewise,  we 
expect  as  the  consummation  of  a  great  course 
of  nature,  and  as  the  final  result  of  this  world- 
age.  What  that  resurrection  body  shall  be, 
must  be  made  known  to  us  now,  if  at  all, 
through  revelation ;  but,  while  science  can 
never  demonstrate  the  unseen  and  the  eternal, 


2,7^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

there  is  nothing  in  our  positive  science  which 
need  j^revent  us  from  listening  on  this  subject 
to  the  hope  of  revelation,  or  from  carrying 
out  in  a  belief  in  the  resurrection  our  moral 
interpretation  of  the  course  of  nature.  On 
the  contrary,  the  biblical  teaching  affords  with 
regard  to  the  future  life  the  simplest,  most  con- 
nected, and  intelligible  reading  of  many  phe- 
nomena of  this  present  life  which  are  hiero- 
glyphics to  the  science  of  the  senses.  Revela- 
tion indicates  future  correlations  and  conser- 
vations of  existing  forces,  which  we  now  know 
in  part,  but  which  we  are  not  yet  able  to  com- 
prehend in  a  perfect  science  of  life.  The  bib- 
lical doctrine  of  the  future  state  is  the  logical 
conclusion  of  tendencies  and  laws  whose  oper- 
ation within  the  limits  of  this  present  life  is 
a  matter  of  positive  knowledge. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  it  is  not  unscientific 
to  assume  that  matter  in  its  make  and  form  is 
only  a  passing  mode  or  transient  stage  of  a 
process  of  evolution  which  is  older  than  all 
visible  worlds,  and  which  has  in  it  the  prom- 
ise and  the  potency  of  new  and  still  more 
glorious  creations.  It  is  not  unscientific  to 
suppose  that  the  law  of  continuity  obtains  not 
only  within  the  limits  of  the  present  system 
of  things,  but  also  beyond  them  ;  that  what 
we  call  nature  is  but  a  half  truth,  a  part  of 
the  thought  of  the   Eternal;  and  that  when 


NATURALNESS  OF  THE  RESURRECTION    Z77 

infinite  Love  shall  have  finished  its  pei-fect 
work  nothing  shall  be  wasted,  and  that  which 
remains  shall  be  more  glorious  than  that  which 
passes  away. 

From  what  we  have  learned  and  suspected^ 
also,  of  the  natural  relation  of  soul  and  body, 
the  prospect  of  immortality  through  a  higher 
embodiment  would  seem  to  be  but  the  continu- 
ation of  a  course  of  nature  already  begun. 
We  have  regarded  the  wonder  of  the  human 
brain  as  the  end  of  one  course  of  evolution  in 
the  gain  of  the  first  possible  physical  basis  for 
a  created  soul.  We  have  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  it  marks  the  first  step,  the  beginning, 
of  self-conscious,  thoughtful  life;  we  have 
no  reason  to  imagine  that  the  first  step  is  the 
last,  the  beginning  the  end  of  spiritual  exis- 
tence. Rather  the  progress  of  nature  up  to 
the  human  brain  leaves  us  no  reason  to  limit 
the  process  of  organization  of  matter  for  mind 
at  the  point  of  sight.  The  brain  may  be  only 
the  embyronic  condition  of  the  matter  of 
mind.  Indeed,  in  the  present  union  of  mind 
and  body  the  process  already  has  gone  beyond 
our  sight,  and  no  microscope  can  show  us 
where  the  matter  upon  which  mind  rests  first 
begins.  The  physical  basis  of  our  present  life 
of  thought  defies  analysis — no  science  can  lay 
it  bare.  But  if  mind,  a  spiritual  force,  can  in 
any  way  enter  into  living  relation  with  matter 


37^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

SO  gross  and  palpable  as  a  convolution  of 
nerve  cells,  much  more  might  it  enter  into 
possession  and  enjoyment  of  matter  of  a  still 
finer  sublimation,  and  of  a  more  ethereal  con- 
stitution. If  even  in  the  dull  brain  there  can 
be  laid  up  the  materials  of  an  organic  mem- 
ory, much  more  in  a  spiritual  body  might 
mind  make  itself  master  of  all  things.  We 
cannot  be  stopped  short  in  this  inference  by 
the  assumption  which  Mr.  Lewes  says  biology 
makes,  that  there  is  one  matter  everywhere  the 
same  ;  *  for,  as  we  have  already  noticed,  phy- 
sical science  is  compelled  to  admit  the  exis- 
tence of  at  least  one  kind  of  ethereal  matter 
of  a  different  constitution  from  ordinary  mat- 
ter. We  are  not  obliged  to  adopt  the  conjec- 
ture that  the  ether  is  not  a  mere  medium,  but 
a  medium  j9Z?/.s  the  invisible  order  of  things  ;  f 
nor  need  w^e  entertain  the  kindred  supposition 
of  Isaac  Taylor,  J  that  "  there  is  about  us  a 
fluid,  the  counterpart  of  the  ether,"  with 
which  mind  may  be  amalgamated.  We  need 
cherish  no  imagination  whatsoever  of  the 
nature  of  spiritual  bod}^;  we  need  simply 
admit  the  perfectly  scientific  possibility  of  a 
higher  and  better  organization  of  some  kind 
of   matter  for  mind,  as   the   future  physical 


*  Physical  Basis,  p.  4. 

f  Unseen  Universe,  p.  198. 

X  Physical  Theory,  p.  219. 


NATURALNESS  OF  THE  RESURRECTION.   379 

basis  of  immortal  life.  We  reason,  then,  from 
the  way  the  Creator  has  taken  up  to  the  brain 
of  man,  to  the  way  he  will  take  beyond  this 
present  mortal  body.  The  same  divine  opera- 
tion which  in  the  human  l)ody  has  fashioned 
a  material  organism  for  the  free  play  of  con- 
scious thought,  can  work  that  process  of  organ- 
ization out  to  perfection.  The  very  momen- 
tum of  life  must  carry  it  through  death.  As 
we  know  that  a  train  which  comes  within  our 
view,  and  the  next  moment  swiftly  passes  out 
of  our  sight,  must  be  hurried  on  by  its  own 
motion,  and,  though  disappearing,  does  not  come 
to  a  sudden  stop ;  so  we  reason  from  the  mo- 
mentum of  present  thought  and  purpose  to  a 
future  existence,  and  believe  that  the  life  goes 
still  farther  on  in  the  world  beyond  our  sight. 
It  is  contrary  to  experience  to  suppose  a  sud- 
den stop  at  death.  It  is  not  the  way  of  the 
Creator  up  to  man  to  bring  his  growing  work 
to  an  end  in  one  fearful  crash  and  destruction. 
Therefore  we  say,  as  he  is  a  faithful  Creator, 
as  the  whole  course  of  creation  thus  far  is  not 
one  stupendous  lie,  death  does  not  end  all. 
We  shall  put  off  this  mortality  to  be  clothed 
upon  with  immortality.  First  the  natural, 
afterwards  that  which  is  spiritual. 

These  special  probabilities  of  immortality 
through  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  gain 
additional  strength  and  consistency  when  we 


o 


80  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 


take  tliem  up  and  weave  them  together,  witli 
all  our  previous  reasonings,  into  the  whole 
woof  and  substance  of  our  Christian  thinking. 
The  Christian  evidences  are  so  complementary, 
and  mutually  confirmatory,  that  we  cannot  do 
them  justice  b}^  treating  them  as  though  they 
were  detached  threads.  We  have  to  pursue 
continuous  divine  processes ;  we  have  to  inter- 
pret a  development  of  nature,  a  course  of  his- 
tory, a  progressive  revelation,  an  increasing 
purpose  running  through  all  towards  one  "  far 
off,  divine  event."  He  who  can  follow  with 
the  spiritual  understanding  the  paths  of  a 
Diviner  Presence  than  eye  hath  seen  along  the 
ways  of  nature  and  through  history,  will  find 
that  he  is  ever  "stepping  westward,"  and  with 
a  glowing  sky  to  lead  him  on.  History,  the 
echo  of  humanity's  low  voice,  will  give  him 
hopeful  greeting, — - 

"  A  sound 
Of  something  without  place  or  bound," — 

and,  as  he  gazes  into  the  vistas  of  light  beyond 
light  of  futurity,  he  will  feel  as  the  poet,  look- 
ing into  the  evening  sky,  while  walking  in  the 
hiirhlands,  felt : 


The  echo  of  the  voice  inwrought, 
A  human  sweetness  with  the  thought 
Of  travelling  through  the  world  that  lay 
Before  me  in  my  endless  way." 


THE  END    OF  EVOLUTION.  38 1 

We  cannot  refrain  from  drawing  the  con- 
trast between  the  vision  of  life  in  worlds  to 
come  which  inspired  the  great  apostle  who 
preached  the  hope  of  the  resurrection  at 
Athens,  and  the  outlook  into  the  dim,  uncer- 
tain future  permitted  to  the  great  philosopher 
who  in  our  times  has  built  ao^ain  the  altar  to 
the  Unknown  God.  "Evolution,"  sa3^s  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer,  "  has  an  impassable  limit."  * 
"  A  universe  of  extinct  suns  round  which  cir- 
cle planets  devoid  of  life,"  is  the  "proximate 
end  of  the  processes  everywhere  going  on."  f 
"  Universal  death  "  is  the  end  which  the  evo- 
lutionist must  contemplate  as  the  last  state  of 
a  worn-out  creation.  "  Universal  death  "  is 
the  inevitable  close  of  evolution,  and  that  fatal 
end  "may  continue  indefinitely."  But  the 
evolutionist  recoils  from  his  own  conclusion, 
and  flies  for  refuge  to  the  mystery  of  the  Un- 
known. The  end  may  be  only  proximate,  the 
tragic  death  of  nature  only  another  birth.  That 
the  law  which  has  developed  from  nebulous 
beginnings  and  primordial  worlds  these  starry 
constellations,  and  habitable  worlds,  and  life's 
rich  and  infinite  variety,  should  prove  after  all 
to  be  only  a  law  of  death — death  playing  at 
life — that  it  should  build  only  to  destroy,  and 
find  the  goal  of  all  its  mighty  working  only 

*  First  Prin.,  p.  440. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  472. 


382  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

in  reducing  all  its  works  to  cliaos  and  night — 
this  seems  even  to  the  sternest  of  evolutionists 
almost  too  great  a  tax  upon  the  faith  of  the 
human  heart.  He  admits  that  the  evolution 
which  his  thought  has  followed  to  universal 
death  may  be  only  relative, — as  we  suppose 
that  visible  nature  is  itself  only  part  of  the 
whole  stupendous  process  of  creative  power. 
He  admits  that  things  seem  to  point  to  another 
future,  and  that,  "on  carrying  the  argument 
still  further,  we  are  led  to  infer  a  subsequent 
Universal  Life."  ^  This  "  possible  hypothesis  " 
of  the  great  philosopher  of  the  Unknown  we 
may  at  least  claim  as  a  scientific  permission 
for  preaching  the  hope  of  the  great  apostle  of 
the  revealed  mystery  of  the  ages.  Herbert 
Spencer,  having  by  most  laborious  toil  gained 
the  summit  of  this  nineteenth  century  wisdom, 
looks  about  him  to  see  a  rayless  horizon  and 
the  approach  of  universal  night.  Yet  beyond 
that  horizon  may  lie,  he  thinks,  the  possibility 
of  another  dawn.  The  Christian  revelator, 
likewise,  sees  the  night  coming,  but  also  the 
day.  The  possibility  of  science  is  his  sure 
hope  of  that  which  lies  beyond  time,  and 
which  transcends  knowledge.  He,  too,  sees 
the  cloud  and  the  darkness;  but  he  has  a 
larger  vision  of  the  spirit,  and  is  assured  that 


♦  Ibid.,  p.  483. 


NATURAL  EVOLUTION  A  HALF-TRUTH.     383 

the  cloud  is  of  the  moment,  and  the  sunshine 
is  eternal.  "  There  shall  be  no  night  there." 
Death,  he  believes,  is  a  moment  and  part  of 
the  larger  process  of  life,  and  the  passing  away 
of  the  earth  and  the  heavens — the  tragic  end 
of  the  creation  in  universal  death,  which  our 
very  science  must  foretell — is  but  a  moment 
and  part,  likewise,  of  that  divine  work  and 
order  through  which  the  natural  shall  bring 
in  the  spiritual,  the  gh.)ry  of  the  terrestrial  be 
transformed  into  the  glory  of  the  celestial,  and 
perfect  love,  having  given  of  itself  to  the 
uttermost,  shall  reach  at  length  the  end  of  all 
its  ways  from  the  beginning  in  that  great  city, 
the  holy  city,  descending  out  of  heaven  from 
God,  having  the  glory  of  God. 

It  remains  for  us  now  to  gather  up  in  one 
general  conclusion  the  separate  lines  of  our 
reasoning.  We  began  by  accepting  loyally 
the  results  of  scientific  research  into  the  pres- 
ent constitution  of  things.  We  trust  our 
senses,  and  the  logic  of  the  senses,  just  so  far 
as  the  human  understanding  can  work  out  a 
positive  science.  We  admit  that  the  course 
of  visible  nature  can  be  best  summed  up  in 
some  general  law  of  evolution.  We  do  not 
question,  and  have  no  moral  interest  in  ques- 
tioning, a  physical  evolution,  and  a  mechanism 
coextensive  with  the  bounds  of  nature,  so  far 
as  by  such  conceptions  the  sum  total  of  our 


3^4  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

scientific  knowledge  can  be  at  present  expressed 
to  the  best  advantage.  But  ours  is  by  birth- 
right the  duty,  also,  of  subjecting  visible  nature 
to  the  interpretation  of  the  spirit,  and  of  read- 
ing the  formulas  of  things  in  the  light  of  our 
own  moral  ideas.  The  science  whose  source 
is  within  us,  can  never  yield  to  any  sciences 
whose  sources  are  in  the  world  without  us. 
Perfect  knowledge  must  be  the  harmony  of 
both.  Our  objection  to  evolution  is  not  that 
it  may  not  be  true :  but  that,  if  proved  true,  it 
is  only  a  half-truth.  We  dare  not  put  a  pai-t 
for  the  whole ;  we  refuse  to  measure  the  pos- 
sibilities of  the  universe  by  the  diameter  of 
the  little  circle  of  our  knowledge.  Besides 
the  curve  of  the  earth  which  we  can  measure, 
there  is  the  immeasurable  sweep  of  the  sky 
above  us.  A  philosophy  worthy  of  the  name 
must  admit  both  sciences — the  science  of  the 
natural,  and  the  science  of  the  spiritual  which 
transcends  nature, — or  its  conclusions  will  be 
only  half-truths.  Physical  evolution  finds  its 
complement  only  in  a  higher  truth.  The  one 
thought  of  the  Creator  is  expressed  in  two 
parts  of  speech,  a  noun  and  a  verb ;  matter 
and  mind,  body  and  soul,  nature  and  the  su- 
pernatural, are  the  two  parts,  the  noun  and 
the  verb,  of  the  one  creative  word.  But  the 
prevalent  evolutionary  philosophy  is  a  grammar 
simply  of  the  noun  to  the  neglect  of  the  verb. 


THE  SUPERNATURAL   EVOLUTION.       385 

It  is  a  science  only  of  one  part  of  the  creative 
speecli;  it  goes  off  exultingly  with  the  sub- 
stantive, and  leaves  metaphysics  to  learn,  if  it 
can,  what  is  really  affii-med  of  it.  It  takes 
nature  as  the  only  part  of  the  divine  speech 
worth  knowing,  and  separates  it  from  all  the 
affirmations  of  our  consciousness.  But  we 
cannot  so  easily  and  so  arbitrarily  construe 
the  Creator's  thought.  It  may  be  difficult  to 
see  how  in  some  points  the  noun  and  the  verb 
agree ;  how  together  they  make  one  intelligi- 
ble meaning ;  but  no  difficulty  in  our  earthly 
grammar  can  warrant  us  in  giving  up  one  iota 
of  the  sentence  set  before  us  for  our  study ; 
and  if  we  should,  it  would  be  easier  to  sacri- 
fice matter  to  spirit,  than  spirit  to  matter. 
But  we  hold  fast  to  both  noun  and  verb ;  to 
the  great  generic  substantive  without  us — the 
world  that  is  made,  and  which  stands  for  some- 
thing ;  and  also  to  that  which  is  affirmed  with- 
in us — thought,  will,  love. 

Wherever  mechanism  can  be  found,  even 
within  the  domain  of  life,  we  are  ready  to  re- 
ceive the  proofs  of  it."^  But  mechanism  ex- 
plains nothing,  not  even  its  own  motion.  We 
have  given  in  the  preceding  chapters  evidences 


*  The  burden  of  proof  is  really  on  the  side  of  materialism. 
Consciousness  holds  everything  to  be  like  itself,  until  it  is  proved 
to  be  different.  Everything  is  spiritual  until  shown  to  be  mate- 
rial. 

17 


3^^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

of  the  presence  and  working  of  sometliing 
wliicli  is  without  the  mechanism  of  things, 
and  whose  energy  cannot  be  reduced  to  any 
physical  equivalents.  We  noticed  the  histori- 
cal growth  of  a  revelation,  which  it  is  difficult 
to  account  for  as  a  spontaneous  generation  of 
nature.  We  traced  the  processes  of  the  mani- 
festation of  a  divine  life  with  man.  We  have 
seen  in  the  development  of  a  progressive  reve- 
lation the  evolution  of  a  power  greater  than 
natural  forces,  and  working  out  its  benign 
results  according  to  a  higher  law.  The  nat- 
ural evolution  of  the  Semitic  stock  does  not 
contain  the  whole  development  of  the  history 
of  Isi'ael.  We  then  beheld,  standing  among 
men,  one  whose  generation  no  natural  science 
can  declare,  whose  Person  is  a  wonder,  and 
whose  life  is  a  miracle,  if  this  world  and  the 
powers  of  this  world  are  all  of  the  universe ; 
but  whose  advent  is  hardly  a  surprise,  and 
whose  work  is  a  unity,  if  we  view  it  in  rela- 
tion to  a  divine  order,  and  as  the  culmination 
of  a  supernatural  evolution  of  nature.  We 
beheld  in  that  consummation  of  the  ci'eation 
the  beginning  of  a  new  reign  higher  than  the 
dynasty  of  man,  the  ushering  in  of  a  new 
kingdom  of  a  constitution  beyond  the  earth- 
ly which  it  shall  supersede,  even  the  kingdom 
of  heaven.  We  have  listened  to  the  proph- 
ecies of  the  final  glory  of  that  kingdom,  and 


THE  SUPERNATURAL   EVOLUTION.        i^J 

find  in  them  the  worthy  end  and  consumma- 
tion of  the  whole  divine  process,  or  supernat- 
ural evolution^  of  the  creation — of  nature,  life, 
and  human  history.  So  far  as  we  can  read 
from  the  face  of  this  present  world  the  story 
of  its  own  past,  and  the  probabilities  of  its 
future,  we  learn  that  it  has  not  always  been, 
and  that  it  cannot  last  forever.  We  discover 
in  the  present  visible  nature  the  signs  that  it 
is  but  a  part  and  moment  of  a  diviner  whole. 
The  scene  cannot  be,  as  we  have  repeatedly 
said,  the  demonstration  of  the  Unseen ;  but 
the  more  we  learn  of  nature,  the  more  confi- 
dence we  may  have  in  the  spirit's  affirmations 
of  faith.  We  have  seen  that  this  world  is 
unfinished,  and  this  apparent  or  visible  nature 
incomplete — its  evolution  a  contradiction  and 
destruction  of  itself — unless  we  believe  that 
it  is  continuous  with  a  supernatural  realm, 
and  a  preparation  for  that  which  is  perfect, 
which  is  to  come. 

This  conclusion  will  at  once  be  subjected 
by  many  to  the  reproach  of  dualism,  and  it 
will  be  said  that  evolution  excludes  the  suppo- 
sition of  a  twofold  development  of  the  creation. 
But,  as  matter  of  fact,  we  find  a  twofoldness 
in  experience  which  we  may  hide  from  our- 
selves for  the  moment  under  some  mask  of 
words,  but  which  we  cannot  obliterate  so  long 
as  we  are  thinking  men.     We  do  not  make, 


3^^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT, 

we  simply  recognize,  tlie  dualism  whicli  exists 
in  the  constitution  of  nature.  There  are  two 
kinds  of  force,  two  lines  of  law,*  two  orders  of 
dev^elopment,  two  processes  of  evolution, — 
body  and  mind,  nature  and  spirit,  earth  and 
heaven.  We  secure  only  a  fictitious  unity 
when  we  ignore  either  kind  of  being,  or  seek 
to  reduce  either  to  the  terms  of  the  other. 
The  desire  to  reduce  the  universe  to  a  unit,  is 
the  ignis  fatuus  of  much  positive  science. 
It  lures  rash  scientific  speculation  into  ex- 
tremes of  folly.  HaeckeVs  boastful  monism, 
for  examj^le,  or  claim  that  he  has  reduced  all 
things  in  heaven  and  earth  to  one  kind  of  pro- 
toplasmic matter,  involves  the  double  absur- 
dity of  asking  the  human  mind  to  commit 
suicide,  and  also  of  attempting  to  bring  nature 
into  subjection  by  beating  the  very  breath  of 
life  out  of  it.  Science,  then,  would  have  to 
perform  the  office  of  undertaker  to  a  dead 
world.  Nature,  however,  is  not  a  mere  col- 
lection of  specimens  preserved  for  our  dissec- 
tion ;  and  philosophy  still  has  a  higher  task  to 
fulfil  than  to  keep  the  doors  of  a  museum- 
world.  There  is  an  "  inner  life  of  things," 
and  a  unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  creation.  We 
have  followed,  in  our  discussion,  the  course  of 
a  twofold  development,  and  found  in  nature 
and  history  repeated  and  manifold  signs  of  a 
double  evolution — a  supernatural   as  well  as 


DUALISM  AND  UNITY  OF  THE  CREATION.  3^9 

natural  law,  and  order,  and  growth  ; — but  the 
two  are  one  in  their  origin,  their  aim,  and  their 
end.  The  supernatural  evolution,  whose  signs 
and  evidences  we  cannot  deny,  is  not  a  work 
of  spiritual  power  against  nature  ;  rather  we 
have  conceived  of  it  throughout  as  a  connatural 
evolution — a  development  with  nature,  and 
through  nature,  of  something  which  is  more 
than  nature;  the  result  or  goal  of  which  is  a 
new  nature,  the  second  nature,  the  glorified 
creation,  the  new  heaven,  and  new  earth  of  the 
Scriptures.  The  unity  is  real,  the  dualism 
which  we  observe  apparent.  The  dualism  ex- 
ists in  time,  and  to  our  finite  intelligence ;  the 
unity  is  in  eternity,  and  to  the  mind  of  the 
Omniscient.  A  monistic  theory  is  conceivable 
only  when  we  bring  in  the  idea  of  the  living 
God  as  the  everywhere  present  Spirit,  and  eter- 
nal unity  of  the  creation.  The  oneness  of  all 
things  amid  infinite  diversity  is  a  truth  of  the 
Spirit.  All  the  sciences  seek  for  this  unity, 
but  religion  alone  finds  it.  When  Comte  pro- 
posed as  the  end  of  positive  science  the  reduc- 
tion of  all  phenomena  to  one  law,  he  really 
brought  back  again  the  banished  age  of  the- 
ology. The  one  comprehensive  formula  for 
all  existing  things  is — God.  By  Him  all 
things  consist.  The  unity  of  the  creation  is  a 
truth  of  the  Godhead.  The  science  of  the 
senses  may  knock  in  vain  for  this  truth  to  be 


39^  OLD  FAITHS  IN  NEW  LIGHT. 

opened  to  it,  but  the  poet  finds  it  revealed 
wherever  he  looks.  It  is  not  a  lesson  of  biol- 
ogy, but  a  truth  of  life  disclosed  to  the  living 
soul.  He  who  possesses  what  Wordsworth 
called  "  the  first  great  gift,  a  vital  soul,"  who 
has  '*  the  feeling  intellect,  reason  in  her  most 
exalted  mood,"  becomes  the  true  seer,  the  in- 
terpreter of  the  thought  of  God  hidden  in 
nature's  heart.  The  divine  secret  of  existence 
which  the  logic  of  Mr.  Mill  could  not  break 
open,  which  the  science  of  the  Royal  Acad- 
emy cannot  torture  to  confess  itself  in  its 
laboratory,  is  the  truth  pervading  all  things, 
which  the  feeling  intellect  of  Wordsworth 
discerned,  and  the  sense  and  the  mystery  of  it 
made  him  the  great  poet  of  nature's  spiritual 
aspects  and  prophetic  moods.  To  the  poet's 
vital  soul  nature  wore  an  expression  of  divin- 
ity on  her  very  face. 

"  The  unfettered  clouds  and  region  of  the  heavens  ; 
Tumult  and  peace,  the  darkness  and  the  light ; 
Were  all  the  workings  of  one  mind,  the  features 
Of  the  same  face,  blossoms  upon  one  tree  ; 
Characters  of  the  great  Apocalypse, 
The  types  and  symbols  of  Eternity, 
Of  first,  and  last,  and  midst,  and  without  end." 

We  need  never  hesitate,  therefore,  to  bring 
old  faiths  into  new  light.  Our  spiritual  life 
can  suffer  and  grow  pale  only  if  we  shut  it 
out  from  the  increasing  light,  and  leave  it  to 
grow  in  the  darkness.     The  clear  shining  of 


CONCLUSION.  391 

knowledge  may  dissipate  a  thousand  fancies 
which  we  have  mistaken  for  realities ;  but  it 
shall  bring  to  faith  health,  and  vigor,  and  re- 
newed life.  While  many  run  to  and  fro,  and 
knowledge  is  increased,  Christianity  cannot  be 
preserved  as  a  cloistered  virtue,  or  a  scholas- 
tic art  r  but  out  in  the  breezy  world,  under 
the  open  sky,  rejoicing  in  the  light,  its 
strength  shall  not  be  abated,  nor  its  eye  grow 
dim.  Keverently  and  humbly,  but  nothing 
doubting,  the  Christian  apologist  of  to-day 
may  follow  wherever  new  paths  of  knowledge 
seem  opening  to  our  approach  ;  and  though 
he  goes  down  into  the  depths,  or  wanders 
through  realms  of  strange  shadows,  and  end- 
less confusions,  nevertheless,  after  he  has  trav- 
ersed all  the  spheres  into  which  thought  can 
find  entrance,  if  he  remains  true  to  the  spirit 
sent  for  his  guidance,  his  better  self, — like 
Dante  following  Beatrice  from  world  to 
world — he  shall  find  himself  at  last  by  the 
gates  of  Paradise,  walking  in  a  cloud  of  light, 
full  of  all  melodious  voices. 


THE   END. 


THE 

RELIGIOUS  FEELING 

BY 

Rev.  NEWMAN  SMYTH. 


One  Volume,  12xno,  cloth, $1.25. 


In  this  volume  Mr.  Smyth  has  it  for  his  object  to  formulate  the 
religious  feeling  as  a  capacity  of  the  human  mind,  and  to  vindicate  its 
claims  to  authority.  He  sets  before  himself  at  the  outset  the  task  of 
convicting  sceptical  philosophy  out  of  its  own  mouth.  The  work  is 
thoroughly  logical,  and  displays  a  familiarity  with  the  most  recent  German 
thought  which  is  rarely  to  be  found. 


CRITICAL     NOTICES. 


Mr.  Joseph  Cook's  opinion  of  '*  The  Religious  Feeling:" 

"A  fresh,  keen  book,  copies  of  which  I  wish  were  scattered  broadcast  throughout  the 
land  :  "  and,  in  a  letter  to  the  author,  "  I  admire  exceedingly  the  familiarity  you  exhibit 
with  the  latest  scientific  literature.  The  reverent  spirit  \yith  which  you  treat  all  Christian 
truth,  the  elegance  of  your  style  ;  the  searching  originality  of  many  a  page  in  your 
volume,  insure  it  a  lasting,  and,  I  hope,  a  wide  usefulness." 

"The  argument  in  its  clearness,  force  and  illustrations,  has  never,  to  our  knowledge, 
been  better  stated.  Mr.  Smyth  has  brought  to  his  work  a  clear,  analytical  mind,  an 
extensive  knowledge  of  German  philosophical  thought,  and  an  intellectual  familiarity 
with  the  later  English  schools.  He  does  his  own  thinking,  and  writes  with  perspicuity 
and  vigor." — The  Advance. 

"  Upon  his  own  field  of  metaphysical  and  moral  philosophy  he  displays  a  degree  of 
clear,  acute,  aiid  analytic  reasoning  which  is  of  a  high  order  and  exceedingly  effective, 
both  in  deinolishing  the  semi-materialistic  philosophy  of  Darwin  and  Spencer,  and  in 
demonstrating  the   spiritual    nature    and     supernatural     origin    of    the    human    soul." 

— Chicago  Interior. 

"We  welcome  this  volume  as  a  valuable  contribution  to  that  type  of  thought  in  the 
vindication  of  theism  which  is  specially  demanded  at  the  present  time.  The  discussion 
throughout  evinces  much  reading  and  vigorous  thought,  and  is  conducted  with  marked 
candor  and  ability." — Neiu   Englander. 

"  We  can  cordially  recommend  the  reader  to  follow  the  author  through  his  entire 
argument,  for  it  is  both  brief  and  clear.  The  book  will  form  a  help  to  many  perplexed 
minds,  and  it  epitomizes  very  satisfactorily  some  of  the  best  results  of  conservative 
German  thought."  —  Cincinnnti  Gazette. 

"This  very  interesting  book  is  always  eloquent  and  suggestive.  \Vhat  makes  it 
especially  noteworthy,  seems  to  us  its  significance  in  relation  to  our  day." 

—New  York  World, 

"The  argument  contained  in  these  pages  is  eminently  satisfactory.  It  is  one  of  the 
best  answers  to  Darwin  and  his  followers  we  have  ever  met  with." — The  Churchman. 


*  it*  For  sale  hy  all  booksellers,  or   7vill  he  sent,  />repaid.  upon  receipt  of  price ^ 
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EangF'x  OoraraFntflrg, 

CRITICAL,  DOCTRINAL,  AND  HOMILETICAL. 
IRANSLATED,    ENLARGED,    AND     EDITED 

BY 

PHILIP    SCHAFF,    D.D., 

PROFESSOR   IN   THE   UNION   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY. 

This  is  the  most  comprehensive  and  exhaustive  Commentary  on  the  whole 
Bible  ever  pubhshed  in  this  or  any  other  country.  It  will  be  completed  in 
24  large  royal  octavo  volumes.  Twenty-two  volumes  have  already  appeared, 
and  the  remaining  two  are  now  in  press. 

The  German  work,  on  which  the  English  edition  is  based,  is  the  product 
of  about  twenty  distinguished  Biblical  scholars,  of  Germany,  Holland,  and 
Switzerland,  and  enjoys  a  high  reputation  and  popularity  wherever  German 
theology  is  studied. 

The  American  edition  is  not  a  mere  translation  (although  embracing  the 
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English  and  American  student.  Its  popularity  and  sale  has  been  lately 
increasing  in  Great  Britain. 

The  press  has  been  almost  unanimous  in  its  commendation  of  Lange's 
Commentary.  It  is  generally  regarded  as  being,  on  the  whole,  the  most 
useful  Commentary,  especially  for  ministers  and  theological  students — in 
which  they  are  more  likely  to  find  what  they  desire  than  in  any  other.  It  is 
a  complete  treasury  of  Biblical  knowledge,  brought  down  to  the  latest  date. 
It  gives  the  results  of  careful,  scholarly  research  ;  yet  in  a  form  sufficiently 
popular  for  the  use  of  intelligent  laymcu.  The  Homiletical  department 
contains  the  best  thoughts  of  the  great  divines  and  pulpit  orators  of  all  ages, 
on  the  texts  explained,  and  supplies  rich  suggestions  for  sermons  and  Bible 
lectures. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  chief  merits  of  this  Commentary  : 

1.  //  is  orthodox  and  sound,  without  being  sectarian  or  denominational. 
It  fairly  represents  the  exegetical  and  doctrinal  consensus  of  evangelical 
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scientific  criticism. 

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rian,Episcopal,  Congregational,  Baptist,  Methodist,  Lutheran,  and  Reformed 
Churches,  have  contributed  to  this  Commentary,  and  enriched  it  with  the 
results  of  their  special  studies.  It  may,  therefore,  claim  a  national  character 
more  than  any  other  work  of  the  kind  ever  published  in  this  country. 

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fai^  anil  jB.aHonBlisin. 

By  Prof.  GEORGE  P.  FISHER,  D.D.. 

Author   of  "  The    Beginnings   of   Christianity,"    The    Reforxnation,"    Etc. 


One  Volume,  12 mo,  Cloihf  $1.25. 


"  This  valuable  and  timely  volume  discusses  ably,  trenchantly  and 
decisively  the  subjects  of  which  it  treats.  It  contains  within  small  limits 
a  large  amount  of  information  and  imanswerable  reasoning, " — Presbyterian 
Banner. 

••  The  book  is  valuable  as  a  discussion  of  the  mysteries  of  faith  and 
the  characteristics  of  rationalism  by  one  of  the  clearest  writers  and 
thinkers." — Washington  Post. 

"The  author  deals  with  many  of  the  questions  of  the  day,  and  does 
so  with  a  freshness  and  completeness  quite  admirable  and  attractive." 
—-Presbyteriafi. 

*'  This  singularly  clear  and  catholic-spirited  essay  will  command  the 
attention  of  the  theological  world,  for  it  is  a  searching  inquiry  into  the 
very  substance  of  Christian  belief." — Hartford  C our  ant. 

*'  This  little  volume  may  be  regarded  as  virtually  a  primer  of  modem 
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authors.  Alike  in  learning,  style  and  power  of  descrimination,  it  is  honor- 
able to  the  author  and  to  his  university,  which  does  not  urge  the  claims 
of  science  by  slighting  the  worth  of  faith  or  philosophy." — N.  Y.  Times. 

*'  Topics  of  profound  interest  to  the  studious  inquirer  after  truth  are 
discussed  by  the  author  with  his  characteristic  breadth  of  view,  catholicity 
of  judgment,  affluence  of  learning,  felicity  of  illustration,  and  force  of 
reasoning,  .  .  ,  His  singular  candor  disarms  the  prepossessions  of  his 
opponents.  ...  In  these  days  of  pretentious,  shallow  and  garrulous 
scholarship,  his  learning  is  as  noticeable  for  its  solidity  as  for  its  compass." 
— N.  Y.  Tribune. 


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»-«>« 

LECTURES  ON  THE  SCIENCE  OF  LANGUAGE. 

By  F.  Max  Muller,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  All  Souls  College,  Oxford. 

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of  philosophy,  and  to  stimulate  the  curiosity  of  whoever  wishes  to  go  further  and  deeper. 
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CHIPS  FROM  A  GERMAN  WORKSHOP. 

By  F.  M.oc  Muller,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  All  Souls  College,  Uxford.     Re- 
printed  from    the   Second    Revised   London    Edition,  with   copious 
Index.     Vol.  I.  Essays  on  the  Science  of  Religion.     Vol.  II. 
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LECTURES  ON  THE  SCIENCE  OF  RELIGION. 

WITH  PAPERS  ON  BUDDHISM,  AND  A  TRANSLATION  OF 

THE  DHAMMAPADA,  OR  PATH  OF  VIRTUE.    By  F.  Max 

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